Oliver's Pesto Pasta

   I showed you quite a few recipes until now but I somehow seemed to have forgotten a quintessencial recipe in our household: Oliver's Pesto Pasta! Another recipe that got me hooked from the first bite, one that I would eat every week and that made me love pesto forever (I actually hadn't tried pesto before this dish). So now you know that if you like pesto, you HAVE to try this dish! :D Just sayin'... ;)

Ingredients for 3 servings:
- a jar of Barilla pesto (it HAS to be Barilla, the other brands won't do the recipe justice - It's soooo good I would eat this pesto on its own! Oh wait, I actually did:P Other girls have chocolate, I have pesto ;) )
- a pack of mozarella bocancini (we used around 150g but the more, the cheesier!!!)
- 5 medium mushrooms
- 1/2 chicken breast
- a small white onion
- 250g Fettuccine pasta (or any other pasta you prefer)
- 2 Tbsp oil
- ground pepper to taste

Steps:

1. Boil the pasta in a pot with water and salt.

2. Dice the onion, slice the mushrooms, cut the chicken into small pieces.

3. Put the oil in a pan, then add the onion and cook it for about a minute, until it is starting to caramelize.

4. Add the chicken to the pan, then season it with ground pepper. Give it about 2-3 minutes until it's cooked on one side, then turn it over.

5. Then add the mushrooms. Cook them until they're nicely caramelized.

6. Add the pesto, the mozarella and the pasta. Stir it all together and let it simmer until the cheese is melted. Bon appetit!

Oliver's Chicken "Alfredo"

   This is the very first dish Oliver cooked for me. And I fell in love with it (and him) from the first bite! It's soooo creamy and delicious, a real comfort food for bad days and unhappy times, one of my favorite dishes ever!

   Oliver kind of played with the ingredients and put this recipe together in his own way without taking an already written recipe as inspiration. Because of this and because it's so creamy and reminds us of an Alfredo sauce (even though it's more of a ragu), we decided to call it Oli's chicken Alfredo dish :D It's really easy to make, so why not try to make it tonight? :)

Ingredients for 2-3 servings:

- 1/2 chicken breast, diced

- 4-5 white mushrooms, sliced

- 1 small white onion, finely diced

- 50ml cooking cream

- 2 Tbsp of your favourite Chicken Seasoning

- 1 Tbsp oil for cooking

- 150g rice

Sides: 

Broccoli 

- 250g broccoli

Caprese Salad

- 2 tomatoes

- 1 large mozarella ball

- fresh basil 

- balsamic reduction

Steps:

1. Bring some water to a boil and cook the rice.
2. Heat up a pan, add oil and the diced onion.

3. After the onion caramelizes a bit, add the chicken and half of the seasoning (1 Tbsp).

4. When the chicken is 75-80% cooked on both sides, add mushrooms and the remainder of the seasoning. 

5. Let the chicken cook completely and the mushrooms caramelize, then add the cooking cream and reduce it.

6. Make the side: chop the broccoli into small bites, then put it in some boiling water for about 5 min.

7. Slice the tomatoes and the mozarella, then alternatively place a slice of tomato and a slice of mozarella, add chopped basil on top and drizzle some balsamic reduction. 

8. Set the dish: bed of rice, chicken ragu and broccoli and the Caprese Salad on the side.

Bon appetit! Let me know what you think about it! :)