Marinated Grilled Chicken with Roasted Red Peppers, Peas, and Pesto Tortellini

When I was visiting my old college roommate in Pittsburgh last month, he prepared a version of this dish for his community pre-marathon pasta party.  When the dish was placed on the table, it looked like the knife fight scene from West Side Story!  Needless to say, it was a huge hit!

When I got home from Pittsburgh, I decided that this would be a great family meal to try.  Our kids love, chicken, tortellini, and pesto so it seemed like a no brainer.  My friend used Orecchiette instead of tortellini so feel free to improvise.  If you're cooking this on a weeknight, you can use a good store bought pesto, just be sure to look at the ingredients.  You want to use a pesto that includes extra virgin olive oil as a main ingredient.  Most of the store bought incarnations of pesto use canola oil.  If it's summertime and you have fresh basil in your garden just begging to be used, I would highly recommend this homemade pesto sauce, it's easy and will make a huge difference.  Also, you can marinate the chicken in whatever kind of "Italian" marinade you would like if you're short on time.  I often use Newman's Own, "Family Recipe Italian Dressing" with great results, but I've included a recipe for a dressing that is perfect for marinating chicken (and on salads).

For the marinade:
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2 cloves minced garlic
1 tbls honey
1 pinch salt
ground black pepper to taste

Wisk all of the ingredients in a non-reactive bowl.  Correct to your liking with salt, pepper, and honey if needed.  

Ingredients:
Pesto
3 Chicken breast halves
1 serving of marinade(listed above), or one bottle of "store bought"
3 Red Bell Peppers
1 Cup of Frozen Green Peas
5 cups of frozen or fresh tortellini
1/4 cup Grated Parmesan

Place the chicken in the marinade and let sit in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or up to 2 hours.  Preheat the grill.  If you are using a gas grill remove half of the grill grates.If using a charcoal grill, do not place the grate over the coals yet.  

When the grill is preheated, place the red peppers directly over the coals or the gas burners.  Rotate the peppers until they skin is blackened on all sides.  Remove the peppers and place them in a large bowl and cover with aluminum foil.
Place the grill grates back on the grill.  Cook the tortellini according to the directions on the package.  Remove the chicken from the marinade and place on the grill.  Cook for around 5 minutes per side or until cooked through.  Remove the chicken from the grill and let rest.  Microwave the peas according to the directions on the package.  Meanwhile, take a knife and scrape the blackened skin off of the red peppers.  Then chop the peppers into 1 inch cubes.  Toss the tortellini, pesto, roasted red pepper, and peas together.  Sprinkle with fresh grated Parmesan.  Slice the grilled chicken, place on top of the pasta and serve!  This dish should be served family style, preferably alfresco!

Pesto Time!!!

 Are you looking for something to do with all that basil in your garden?  Pesto is the perfect solution!  I use pesto for pizza sauce, pasta sauce, on chicken, you can pretty much put pesto on anything and it tastes great!  This pesto sauce also freezes well. 

Ingredients:
2 cups of fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 generous pinch of salt

3 tbls pine nuts
1/2 cup grated parmingiano-reggiano cheese
2 tbls grated romano cheese
3 tbls softened butter




Place the first 5 ingredients in a food processor or blender and process into a smooth paste.

Transfer the contents of the food processor to a bowl and stir in the cheese.  Once the cheese has been evenly distributed in the sauce, stir in the softened butter and mix well.  If you are using the pesto as a pasta sauce, add a tablespoon of the water that the pasta was cooked in to the pesto sauce when tossing the pasta with the sauce.  This will help the pesto coat the pasta.