I’m the type of person who hates mornings, so having to wake up in the morning and think about what to take or make for lunch is the worst. To solve this problem, I decided to look up recipes for meals that I can make in advance. Being a pasta lover, the recipe that caught my eye was for chicken pesto pasta. Since I’d never made pesto anything before, I thought it’d be cool to try out a new flavor. The recipe only called for 10 simple ingredients:

• 2 chicken breasts, cubed
• 2 tbsp. chopped garlic
• 1 tbsp canola oil
• ¾ cup heavy cream
• 1 cup grated parmesan cheese
• ¼ cup pesto
• 3 cups cooked penne pasta
• ¾ cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• Salt and pepper to taste

Before touching anything else, I boiled the pasta and set it aside. Next, I warmed up the oil in a frying pan and added the chicken, salt, pepper and garlic. Once the chicken was cooked all the way through, I mixed in the heavy cream, parmesan and pesto. I let that simmer for a while until the sauce reduced, before combining it with the cooked pasta. Last, I tossed in the tomatoes and garnished it all with grated parmesan.

I can confidently say I have a newfound love for pesto. I can’t believe I’d been missing out on it for so long. The pesto brings a hearty flavor to the pasta and the tomatoes add a fresh touch. The best part, though, is that I can refrigerate the dish and warm some up for lunch every day.

Surprisingly, the pasta was simple and quick to make. This dish proved that you don’t need a lot of ingredients to make something that tastes good. While I made this for lunch, it would be a great dish to make any time you’re craving pasta or if you have guests coming over, because it doesn’t make a mess or break the bank.

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Photo by Syeda Rizvi

The pasta was flavorful despite its looks. It only took 30 minutes to make the dish.