I stumbled upon this recipe during one of my Pinterest marathons.

When I first joined Pinterest I vowed that I would never have a cooking board – I have multiple cookbooks, Food Network, and for my internet recipe searches Foodgawker – adding Pinterest to that collection would provide me with simply too many choices! I kept my promise for almost two years – until I started blogging. I found myself subscribing to other food blogs and wanting to find a place to keep my favorite posts that wasn’t my email box. I caved and started a Blog Inspiration Pinterest Board.

I used leftover Red Pepper Pesto for this dish and the result was fantastic. I adjusted the sauce recipe too. Funnily enough, the chicken somehow took on the flavor of traditional meatballs. I thought about renaming this dish “Faux Pasta & Meatballs”.  The original recipe calls for traditional pesto – and I’d suspect the result would be a lighter, brighter pasta dish.

Pesto Chicken with Tomato Pesto Rotini

Ingredients:

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 4 tbsp red pepper pesto, divided
• 1/2 bottle Lawry’s Herb & White Wine Marinade
• 1/2 lb tricolor rotini pasta
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 yellow onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 16 oz tomato sauce
• 3/4 C chicken broth
• 1/2 C heavy cream

Steps:

1. Cube chicken and season with S+P. Combine marinade and 2 tbsp pesto. Marinate chicken overnight.
2. Cook pasta in boiling salted water.
3. In a large skillet, cook chicken in its marinade.
4. Make pasta sauce: In a sauce pan cook onion and garlic in olive oil. Pour in tomato sauce, broth and pesto. Cook for 10 minutes, until slightly reduced. Stir in heavy cream.
5. Serve: Toss pasta with chicken and sauce.

*This recipe is modified from Chelsey at http://cdargis.tumblr.com/post/18818836004/garlic-pesto-chicken-with-tomato-cream-penne*