Nice To Meet You: Have Some Pesto Alfredo

Hello and salutations to my newest victims of GF cooking. No, no, I don’t mean to imply that my food will be frightfully experimental or disgusting, only that the delicious allure of sugary or fatty goodness may be to your detriment and ultimately your heavenly demise…

My kitchen is very special to me. I have recently learned that Ali did not start out with a passion in the kitchen but had to learn how to use it so she could survive being gluten free.  I on the other hand have enjoyed cooking in the kitchen as far back as I can remember (I was often my Dad’s little helper, especially when he did large batch cooking for any events within church or family).  I will admit that I never tried to alter a recipe and thought the idea was scandalous to deviate from what was written until after I dated my good chef friend, Joseph.  I've been gluten free for almost 2 years now and find myself experimenting out of necessity, especially for those beloved food items I could once eat at restaurants and they don’t seem to realize their food would be just as good without MSG(I’m talking about you, Olive Garden!). 

As my first recipe to share I find it somewhat appropriate to introduce you to pesto alfredo, especially because pesto was the very first recipe Ali ever posted to her blog for one of her beloved Stewarts.  I don’t know when the inspiration came to me but it has been one of my most well received dishes by every guest I have served it to.

Pesto Alfredo

½ cup heavy cream

1 Tbsp Butter

6 ounces Fettuccine

¾ cup Parmesan

1 breast diced chicken

1 Tbsp Italian herbs

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 Recipe Pesto

2 cloves garlic, minced

¼ tsp salt

1½ cups fresh basil (a little less than 1 ounce)

¼ cup olive oil

¼ cup parmesan

Ground pepper to taste

1. Add all ingredients to food processor and blend.

Alfredo

1. Allow cream and butter to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes
2. Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions.
3. Dice chicken into ¾ inch pieces.  Heat olive oil in frying pan over medium high heat. Season chicken with Italian herbs and cook until white all the way through.
4. Drain pasta. Return pasta to sauce pan; add cream, butter, pesto, and parmesan cheese.  Stir gently until pasta is well coated.  Dish it out on plates and top with cooked chicken. Enjoy rich flavors and tell Olive Garden to suck it.