Pasta with pesto and chicken1

Excellent Italian pasta dish using a basil and olive oil based sauceSauce: Wash all the basil in cold water and place on a cutting board. Cut all the stems off the basil and place the basil leaves in a food processor. Discard the stems. Peel the garlic skin off and slice down the middle of each clove and remove the green part in the center if there is any green part there. Place the garlic into the food processor with the basil and turn on the food processor for about 10 seconds. (Depending on how strong you like the raw garlic taste you can add between 1-4 cloves before it becomes too strong. If you like cooked garlic better you may also crush and saute the garlic in a little olive oil, (be sure not to burn.)) Add 1/3 cup of pine nuts to the mixture in the food processor and set the rest of the nuts aside for later. (You could also use walnuts or a combination of the two if you like.) Activate the food processor for another ten seconds. Each time you activate the food processor try to scrape the sides off on the inside and place whatever you scrape off back into the center of the mixture. Add your salt and pepper and activate the food processor again for about 10 more seconds. Then add the cheese and activate again. Then add the extra virgin olive oil and pulse for 30 seconds. If the mixture does not form a homogeneous paste, scrape the sides or add more oil if needed. Only use extra virgin olive oil for this sauce as it is more flavorful and less acidic. Place the mixure in a bowl and refrigerate for later. Pasta: I would suggest you use penne, penne rigate, fusilli, rotini, linguine, fettuccine, or spaghetti noodles for this dish. Put some water in a large pot and boil the water on high heat. Add a pinch of salt and a few drops of regular olive oil to the water. Add to boiling water and cook until the center of the noodles is no longer white (you can simply remove a noodle every once in a while and bite into it and look.) Stir when you add them to the water and stir again every few minutes. When the pasta is done cooking, strain it and set it aside. Chicken: Pick how many chicken breasts to use based on how much meat you like to eat with your pasta. While you wait for the pasta to boil, add a pinch of salt and pepper to each breast of chicken (or if you like any other seasonings you may use those as well.) Then add a little bit of all purpose flour around the chicken breasts. Pour regular olive oil into a large saute pan until the bottom of the pan is covered, no more oil is necessary. Place this pan on a medium heat for 1 minute. Then add the chicken to the pan right around the same time you start cooking the pasta. Cook on a low heat. Check with a spatula when the bottoms are a little bit browned and flip the chicken over to the other side. Cook for a few more minutes and check again if the bottoms are browned. When the chicken is cooked take it out of the pan and slice thinly. Final preparation: Add the sliced chicken to the cooked pasta and add the pesto sauce and stir. You may also add in the rest of the pine nuts at this time, (you may saute them in oil first or add them raw, either is very tasty.) Mix the sauce and other ingredients well and garnish with left over parmesan or reggiano cheese if you have any.