Pesto Chicken Pasta

This was another experiment, and it was pretty yummy. In fact..I had extra, and ate two servings. Yeah. It was good enough for seconds. :)

I really like pesto, but sometimes it's just a little too strong for me. So I thought, "Self, what can you do with pesto to make it taste a little less strong?" The answer I came up with: make a pesto cream sauce. And...it was successful. Amazingly. Haha. I hope you enjoy it.

Ingredients:
-1/4 cup Pesto (I made it from scratch-recipe at end)
-1/2 cup parmesan, shredded
-1 cup cream
-1/2 cup milk
-2 table spoons butter
-2 table spoons flour
-chicken breast (enough to feed everyone), cubed
-pasta (I used rigatoni)

Directions:
Boil a pot of water and cook the pasta until tender. Drain the pasta. Cook the chicken with some olive oil over medium/medium high heat until no longer pink in center. Set aside. In a sauce pan over medium heat, melt the butter, then whisk in the flour to make a roux. Add the cream and milk. Whisk together until well combined and it starts to thicken. Add the pesto and parmesan. Stir frequently. When the cheese is melted and the pesto is well mixed, reduce the heat to low and stir frequently until slightly thickened. Pour the sauce over the pasta, add the chicken, and stir to coat every noodle and every piece of chicken. Serve immediately. Yummmmmmm. :)

Pesto recipe:
1/4 cup spinach
2 table spoons dried basil, 1/4 cup if fresh
2 teaspoons garlic powder, 2 cloves if fresh
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
olive oil (you just gotta add it till it's the right texture and consistency)
pine nuts (about 3 tablespoons, although it's hard to measure pine nuts in tablespoons. a little less than a 1/4 cup)

In a food processor or blender, pulverize the pine nuts until very fine. Not pine nut butter, but pretty close. Add everything else but the olive oil. Blend together. Add in olive oil a little at a time until it's the consistency of pesto-a pastey saucey loveliness. :)