Leftovers: Roast Chicken & Pesto

I may well have posted this before, but I don't think it was because I had leftover chicken.

I think it was just a Summer-y pasta dish.

This time, I had the never-ending roast chicken leftovers, and a little mozzarella cheese, so I went back to this warm weather staple pasta dish.

While your pasta is cooking in its salted boiling water, combine in a large bowl all your shredded chicken, remaining mozzarella (I had about 1/4 of a bundle left) and roughly 1/3 of a cup of (preferably homemade) pesto.

I went with traditional Genovese basil & pine nut pesto, but I'm sure this would be lovely with whatever your favorite version is, even if that includes walnuts and mint.

Unless you were serving it to me.

In which case you should know better.

(I really hate walnuts.)

My pesto was rather tight, so I drizzled the mixture with some good olive oil before mixing it all together.

Note: this dish would also work with ricotta cheese, so if you have the last quarter of your container in your fridge with no clue what to do with so little, feel free to substitute it here.

Add hot pasta.

Toss to coat and combine.

Use a splash of pasta water if you want a little more of a "sauce" feel.

Grate a little pecorino over the top, and call it dinner delicious.

Chicken Pesto Penne

Soooo for some reason tonight's dinner was a more Summer-based meal, rather than a "it snowed 2 inches this morning" kind of meal. But, I had a hankering, so I defrosted some of my frozen pesto and a couple chicken breasts, picked up some fresh mozzarella, and voila! Dinner.

Sautéed two chicken breasts in evoo, salt, thyme, and a crushed clove of garlic in the oil.

Brought water to a boil, heavily salted, and tossed in the penne (same time as chicken.) (Note the waft of steam on the right. Arty.)

While everything is sizzling/simmering away, I put a spoonful or two of the pesto into the bottom of a bowl. Tear up the fresh mozzarella and toss in. Sprinkle with some Pecorino Romano (cuz fresh mozz needs salt!).  When the pasta is just about done, ladle in some pasta water and stir. (Do not drown bowl.)

Toss the pasta in with the pesto/mozz mix. Dice up the chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces and toss in as well.

Top with more Pecorino. Enjoy! (This is great for summer since it's just a quick pan-sear and water boiling 12 min. Minimal add-age of heat to your kitchen. And tasty at room temp.)

I'm sure someone like Rachael Ray would say "you could make this with whole wheat pasta and bump up the fiber!" but then you'd be eating whole wheat pasta, and I really dislike whole wheat pasta. When I want pasta, I want your standard semolina pasta. If I wanted to be healthy, I'd be eating salmon.