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Home > posts > 2017 > 10 > 2017-10-04_pesto_pasta.html

Broccoli + Chicken Pasta with a Home Made Pesto Cream Sauce Thursday, October 05, 2017, 01:58 AM

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I made pasta and chicken with a home-made pesto cream sauce.

The base of the sauce was béchamel sauce from The Kitchn (LOCAL). Followed their recipe for the base except, I used just 4 Tbsp butter (instead of 6). I also used 2% milk. I may have made the roux a bit too dark, but it is hard to tell. When I added the milk, it super bubbled up and boiled (nearly going over the pan). I feel like that is not supposed to happen, but it didn't curdle and eventually thickened.

To make it a pesto-cream sauce, I added a good bit of salt and some frozen pesto from Meredith's garden last year (same we used here). I also added a tiny bit of parmesan cheese. (I had to adjust the pesto and salt and I went)

Meanwhile, I cut up rotisserie chicken (it's what we had) and prepared the pasta. We used a Zucchette pasta from Trader Joes (pictured below). I had also already steamed a decent amount of broccolini.

At the end, even with the reduced amount of flour, it was still a bit thick so I added some of the water from the pasta.

I added the chicken and the pasta and served Meredith's separately. I then added the rest of the broccoli and combined it all (and made a lunch portion. I hadn't planned on it, but it made a ton of food).

We were really happy with it. The cream sauce was pretty easy, and given that it was 2% milk, it wasn't too unhealthy. And the massive amount of broccoli helped bulk it up! I would do this again when we are in the mood for pasta. It was also nice having the frozen pesto to just throw in

The pasta: