Pesto Chicken Florentine

Because I'm on a beach right now, with nearly a dozen exquisite restaurants at my resort, I can promise you that my mind is on food. Home or away, my mind is always on food. Cooking food, eating food, looking at food....

Yes, that's right, I'm on a beach! Well, right now, as I type this - I'm not on a beach. Its a Monday night and I'm on the couch. But, when this recipes posts on the blog, I will most certainly be on a white-sand beach, listening to waves crash and sipping a mango martini.

I recently went in search of a new pasta dish with fresh, bold flavors, and I found just what I was looking for. With no red sauce, no ground turkey, no chopped onion - this is more than your everyday weeknight pasta. This is loaded with spinach and tomatoes, and held together with garlicky pesto sauce and creamy alfredo. Juicy chunks of chicken make this pasta very hearty, so I promise that you won't be hungry after a big bowl!

Now, I must get back to my martini :-) Here you are, with the latest favorite pasta from my kitchen:

Pesto Chicken Florentine

1 TBS butter + 1 TBS olive oil

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

3 chicken breasts, fat trimmed and cut into chunks

10-oz bag of fresh spinach*

1/2 C Classico alfredo sauce

2 TBS Classico basil pesto sauce

1 package whole-wheat penne

1 large tomato, diced

*I know that a full bag of spinach leaves seems like a lot, but trust me, it wilts down and becomes a mere fraction of what you expect it to be.

1. Melt butter and oil in large skillet. Add chicken. Feel free to season chicken (I used salt, pepper, dried basil, and paprika.) Sautee until cooked through. Add garlic to pan, and cook one minute. Add spinach. Stir spinach, chicken and garlic over medium heat for several minutes until spinach is completely wilted.

2. Meanwhile, cook penne until al dente.

3. Toss pasta with alfredo and pesto (add more of either of you like it saucy.) Add chicken and spinach from pan. Throw in some diced tomato, and use to garnish as well.