Chicken pesto tagliatelle

ITrust you me this pasta dish will hit the

spot

recently got an opportunity to shapa a short left and travelled to South Africa for a couple of days. Personally, one of my favourite things about travel, besides go shapiwa ke fresh air is food and cultural exchanges. On this rather short trip, I had a chance to visit just a handful of restaurants. These included The Fish and Chip Shop, where the fish is battered with love, I can’t wait to share my review of the place with you. One of the restaurants we lunched at was a French restaurant which can be found all over the world, 424 bakery/café restaurants in France and over 300 in 46 other counties.

Knowing I was on my way to catch a flight I opted to keep it light and ordered a croissant and mimosa. Very chic and on brand right? The one friend had something brunchier and the other some pasta.

I came home days later and couldn’t get the pasta off my mind.

I had looked through the restaurant menu in search of the pasta dishes. Most dishes on a menu mention the key ingredients to a dish and I love this because with a little bit of research and shopping around, it becomes easy to recreate some of your favourite restaurant meals in the comfort of your home. Mother’s day was the perfect excuse to spoil myself with that pasta dish.

The key ingredient so happened to be one of my favourites, pesto. It is then that I remembered a good sister friend of mine has a flourishing herb garden. Ke ga ke kopa go tla go harvesta basil the following morning to which she graciously obliged without even thinking twice and allowing me to help myself to everything. I am so grateful to all my amazing friends. I am so encouraged to nurture a herb garden; to be more intentional about it because tota fela it only makes sense that Chellzkitchen uses in-house herbs. Winter might be a challenging month, however I need to do my research and not assume. I once tried to grow spinach and tomatoes, my heart wasn’t in it, so they didn’t grow.

This dish that I am raving on about is ready in just 20 minutes, this is just another reason I fell in love with it even more. It’s a perfect lunch or dinner dish, suitable for the whole family. It is creamy, rich, smooth and luxurious and I found a variation that is made with just a handful of ingredients. Treat yourself to a beautiful dish and try this recipe out this winter. We make a lot of bread, soups and beans during winter, they are great comfort foods. Trust you me this pasta dish will hit the spot. Follow our Facebook page Chellzkitchen to see what else is cooking. We would also love to hear back from you about our recipes that you have

tried in your own kitchen.

Ingredients

250g Tagliatelle pasta 1 tablespoon Olive Oil

400g diced chicken breasts

220g cherry tomatoes halved 4 tablespoon green pesto*

4 tablespoon reduced fat crème fraiche

Freshly ground salt and pepper Freshly grated parmesan and chopped fresh basil to serve

Instructions

Cook the tagliatelle according to the packet instructions.

Whilst the tagliatelle is cooking, gently heat the oil in a large pan/skillet then add the chicken and stir fry for 6 - 7 minutes until cooked through.

Add the tomatoes to the pan and stir them in with the chicken until they begin to soften. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the pesto and cream. Return the pan to the heat and simmer for another 1-2 minutes. Season to taste.

Once tagliatelle is cooked, drain it well and add it to the pan with the chicken. Mix well so the sauce coats the pasta.

Serve topped with parmesan and fresh basil.