Almond Pesto Pasta - Recipe

Ingredients for Pesto Sauce:

• 1 Packet of sweet basil
• 1 Packet of almonds
• 2 Garlic cloves (finely diced)
• A few handfuls of grated Parmesan cheese 
• 2 Teaspoons of lemon juice
• A lug of extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Ingredients for the mix:

• 1 Chicken breast (sliced into strips)
• 1 Chorizo sausage
• 2 Large mushrooms (diced)
• 10 Sun-dried tomatoes
• 1 Clove of garlic (finely diced)
• 2 Spring-onions (diced)
• 1 Red jalapeno with the seeds (finely diced) 
• Fettuccine Pasta
• Olive Oil
• Salt and Pepper

Last night I cooked dinner for my best friend, Kyle, and one of his friend’s that has just moved to town. His friend, Shaheen, is Muslim and Halaal. 

I was really nervous to cook for him as I knew nothing about Halaal – but it was an easy conversation starter and truly fascinating to learn more about their culture.

I made Almond Pesto Pasta with Chicken Breast and Sun-Dried Tomatoes, (with Italian Sausage for Kyle and I).

It was the first time making my own pesto sauce – and I was really proud of it to be honest!

Along with a glass of lime induced vodka in hand, I put almonds into Kyle’s nifty handheld food processor and mushed them up before adding in a packet of sweet basil, destalked. 

I then spooned in my diced garlic (aprox. 2 cloves,) and a few handfuls of parmesan cheese before squeezing in some fresh lemon juice. To loosen, I lugged in some extra virgin olive oil and set aside for later.

To start, I put (far too many,) sun-dried tomatoes into a pan and cooked for about three minutes before removing from the pan and setting aside in a bowl. 

After slicing my chicken into strips and cooking until almost done in the same pan that the tomatoes were in, (letting the chicken soak up the nice acidy juices,) I added two diced spring onions to the pan.

The mushrooms, garlic, chilli and freshly squeezed lemon juice followed shortly after and while I let all of those lovely flavours’ sink into my chicken I put my fettuccine in to boil.

I started my Italian Sausage in a separate pan which smelt divine as it slowly sizzled away, darkening to a deep maroon colour and turning crispy on the outside but chewy in the middle – perfect.

When my fettuccine was done, I started to add it into my chicken mix, dolloping in spoonful’s of pesto sauce with every clump of pasta – giving everything a thorough good mix through.

I then transferred my mix into a massive bowl and dished up three hearty potions – plopping a pretty basil leaf on top of each serving and two almonds to finish.

It was deeeeelicious.

Halaal approved (chicken was bought from Soco and was slaughtered the Halaal way,) and the guys dished up seconds it was so good! 

The spices were just perfect – the whole meal was just perfect! 

Very happy with my latest creation!