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I menu plan for a month at a time. One of my goals for every week is to try one new recipe. I usually shoot for Thursdays for the new recipes because if we don’t like it, we have enough leftovers for everyone to find something they like. This last week, I gave pesto a shot again. We definitely weren’t a fan last time but I tried a different pesto this time. I let all three kids help choose dinner, so this is what we ended up with. This roasted asparagus and chicken pesto recipe turned out way better than the last pesto meal we had.
In letting the kids help choose what we made with pesto, one chose fettuccini noodles, one chose chicken and one chose asparagus. I pretty much recreated one of my comfort food meals with all different things. The kids even helped me to prepare the meal and we had a great time making AND eating it. I’m happy to say, we found a way to love pesto and I still had leftovers for the next night.
First, we gathered our ingredients.
1 jar Barilla Creamy Genovese Pesto
- 1 box Barilla fettuccini pasta {or whatever style noodles you prefer}
- 1/2 stick butter
- 1 bunch asparagus
- 3 chicken breasts
Now that we have everything we need, let’s cook.
First, cook chicken however you prefer. We pan fry it with some salt and pepper.
While the chicken is cooking, boil water and prepare pasta according to directions. Mix together some olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic salt and coat asparagus. Line a baking sheet with tinfoil, and add asparagus. Roast asparagus in over at 350 for about 20 minutes. I’m pretty flexible with the time. I throw it in when I start the chicken and pasta and take it out when the chicken and pasta is ready.
Heat up Barilla Creamy Genovese Pesto. You can skip this step if you want, I just prefer it warm. It will seem like very little sauce. Do not add more. With pesto, a little goes a long way! I repeat – DO NOT ADD IN ANOTHER JAR!
Drain pasta. Dice chicken. Add pasta to serving dish and slice up butter to mix in. Then add asparagus, diced chicken and pesto sauce. Serve warm.
- 1 jar Barilla Creamy Genovese Pesto
- 1 box Barilla fettuccini pasta {or whatever pasta style you prefer}
- ½ stick butter
- 1 bunch asparagus
- 3 chicken breasts
- Cook chicken
- Cook pasta according to package
- While the chicken and pasta are cooking, cut up asparagus into small pieces. Mix olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic and coat asparagus with it. Add tinfoil to a baking sheet and roast asparagus at 350 for about 20 minutes.
- At this point, I also heat up the Barilla Creamy Genovese Pesto but you can skip this step if you want.
- Dice chicken
- Drain pasta and add to serving dish. Mix half stick of butter to pasta until it melts. Add in chicken and asparagus chunks. Add Barilla Creamy Genovese Pesto and mix all ingredients together. Serve warm.
Now, remember when I say that I didn’t like the last pesto that I tried. Let me tell you why. The taste was so overpowering! This is so much better because it has so much flavor. Not only is the flavor amazing, but it is more of a creamy, smooth texture. I have heard that you can use pesto on breads, as a marinade, or so much more but never would have even considered it. The idea of using this as a dip for breads sounds fantastic and you can bet I’ll be trying that soon.
Knowing that all five kids knew that there was pesto sauce and all very much remembering our last experience, I didn’t hold out a load of hope that they would be open-minded about trying this recipe. I hoped that the kids helped choose what to make and prepare it would help. It was a hit. While not all five kids loved it, they all ate it and most of them had seconds. It was a great meal that we are happy to add into our rotation.
