Creamy Spinach Pesto Pasta

I'm not really sure what to say about this dish except that I was in the mood for a creamy spinach type pasta dish and decided to try to make a pesto sauce out of spinach. I did a google search for spinach pesto and found a recipe on Rachael Ray that helped give me a little direction and voila, this recipe was born. It's a really yummy variation of regular pesto...if you like pesto that is;) And if you want a little lighter or healthy version you could of course leave out the whipping cream (though I wouldn't dare of course).


Creamy Spinach Pesto Pasta
salt
3/4 - 1 lb pasta (whichever kind you would like)
4 cups fresh spinach (packed lightly)
handful of chopped pecans
1/2 cup vegetable / chicken stock
1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese
a few sprinkles fresh or dried nutmeg
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1/2 lemon
3 tbsp olive oil, approximately
2 tbsp garlic, minced or 2-3 fresh cloves
1/2 onion, diced
1 cup whipping cream
1/2 medium zucchini, chopped, *optional
artichoke hearts, drained and chopped, *optional
chicken breasts or tenders, *optional

Cook noodles to al dente, making sure not to overcook as you will combine them with the sauce and they'll continue to soften at that point.

While the pasta is cooking, prepare the spinach pesto by combining the spinach, pecans, vegetable stock, nutmeg, lemon zest and lemon juice and a few sprinkles of salt in a blender or food processor. Pulse to chop everything up and then add approximately 2 tbsp olive oil and continue pulsing to combine.

Place a large skillet over medium heat and heat 1 tbsp olive oil. Add the diced onion, minced garlic and chopped zucchini and cook until the veggies are done (if you're like me, you like them to have a little bit of a crunch to them still, but otherwise cook them till they're nice and soft). If you're using marinated artichoke hearts you can add them once the veggies are almost done as they won't need to cook as long as the onions and zucchini.

Once the veggies are done add the whipping cream and heat to boiling, allowing the sauce to boil for 2-3 minutes.

Then add the pasta, pesto, mozzarella cheese and salt to taste and toss to combine. If adding chicken, then chop up cooked / poached chicken breasts / tenders and add at this point. Serve warm with an extra sprinkle of mozzarella cheese on top.

You can also put it in a casserole dish and top with mozzarella cheese and broil/bake it for a few minutes if you like a nice cheese layer on top of your pasta.

Enjoy!