Before we left for Italy we had to cook one more meal that didn’t have any leftovers and used stuff we already had in the house. Our herb garden has been bursting with basil and parsley, and we’d bought a huge thing of cherry tomatoes at the store earlier in the week. What to do? I decided to make a quick pesto and top it with roasted cherry tomatoes and chicken. Super easy, quick, and one of my favorite things to make on a summer day.

Pesto

• Basil
• Parsley
• Garlic
• Roasted pine nuts
• Parmesan cheese
• Olive oil
• Salt

I always start my pesto by filling my food processor with basil, and then using a handful of parsley and a little bit of salt. The parsley adds a bit of sharpness to the basil and extra flavor. Add a little bit of olive oil to the herbs and pulse a couple of times, you’re just trying to make room in the food processor for everything else!

Once the herbs are pulsed, you can add your garlic. I usually use raw garlic, but sometimes I’ll roast it in the toaster oven for more depth of flavor. I also prefer to toast my pine nuts on the stove in a dry pan until they’re brown and smell great!

Pulse your garlic into the herbs, and slowly drizzle olive oil. Add your Parmesan and a handful of pine nuts and continue to drizzle olive oil as you pulse everything together. Taste for seasoning and adjust as you want! Right before I’m finished I add more pine nuts and barely chop them because the hubs likes the crunch.

I usually prefer pesto with a curly pasta that can hold on to the pesto, but we had spaghetti noodles so that’s what we used. Pesto is so versatile and you can add it with whatever pasta you want, and top with extra veggies or a protein. We tossed the pasta, pesto, chicken, roasted tomatoes, and a little pasta water in the pan to coat the pasta.

Verdicchio

A verdicchio is an Italian white wine known for being crisp and refreshing. It’s name comes from the Italian word verde which means “green”, because the wine itself has a greenish yellow tint to it. It is a perfect warm weather wine, because it doesn’t have strong, overwhelming flavors. The verdicchio is very citrus forward, and has a touch of minerality to it. I found it very similar to a Sav Blanc but with more acidity! I really liked this wine because of the citrus flavors, and found them very complimentary to the herbal notes in the pesto.