Fearless Friday, Tomatoes & Chicken Pesto Mac & Cheese

the Painted Apron

8 years ago

I know we are all shedding a tear as the end of summer tomatoes looms on the horizon 😢

But!

Here are some ways to enjoy summer tomatoes all year-

You can paint Tomatoes easily with the Waterlogue App

Pastel pencil on paper

Stacked Tomato Salad

Watercolor tomatoes

A Farmer’s Market Seasonal Chart with colored pencil can help you keep track of peak tomato season

Acrylic on canvas

On glass

Painting tomatoes is easy,

Just a few simple strokes with a brush

The secret is to these quick acrylic tomatoes is to use several tones of red, orange or yellow on a fat round brush, and let the colors mix as you apply them

Once dry, go back and add quick strokes for the tops, using a smaller pointed brush loaded with yellow and dark green

Now that we’ve painted tomatoes, let’s celebrate with this tomato topped mac & cheese with chicken and basil!

A one dish meal to satisfy all kinds of cravings 😋

I adapted this recipe from Caprese Mac & Cheese from Half Baked Harvest

I couldn’t decide if I wanted to make Chicken Cordon Bleu Mac & Cheese, {Cordon Bleu basically means chicken with ham and a cheese sauce}

or a Pesto Mac & Cheese, {adding basil pesto to creamy pasta}

but I knew I wanted to put pretty heirloom tomatoes on top, so I just combined everything into one big tasty dish

You can adopt this recipe in numerous ways,

substitute bacon or sausage for ham,

skip the meat altogether,

use whatever pasta you like,

eliminate the pesto or tomatoes…

It’s basically just mac & cheese…

All dressed up! 👠

Chicken Pesto Mac & Cheese

Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Keyword chicken and pasta casserole, chicken pesto mac & cheese, mac & cheese, mac & cheese with tomatoes

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 45

Servings 5

Ingredients

4 oz. spiral pasta
1 large boneless skinless chicken breast
4 medium thick slices deli ham
2 cups 2% milk
2 T butter
2 T flour
4 oz vermont white cheddar cheese grated
2-4 T pesto
salt & pepper
2 oz grated or shaved Parmesan
1-2 yellow red or heirloom tomatoes, sliced
fresh basil for garnish

Instructions

Bring a sauce pan filled about 1/2 way with water to a boil. Season water well with salt and pepper. Add chicken, cover and turn burner off, but leave pan on burner. Let sit 30 minutes
Remove chicken from pot to safe cutting board. Bring water back to boil, adding more salt. Add pasta, stir, cover. Turn burner off and let pasta sit on burner for 10 minutes or until you’re ready for it.
Cook ham slices in hot skillet for 1-2 minutes to render any fat and to get a little char on them. Remove to cutting board. Cut ham and chicken into bite size pieces.
Drain pasta, return to sauce pan and toss with pesto. Add chicken and ham pieces to pasta and stir
Melt butter in skillet that ham was cooked in, stirring to incorporate any leftover browned bits from ham. Add garlic and cook 1 minute. Add flour and stir, forming a thick white roux. Pour in 1 cup milk. Cook and stir until milk is thickened then add remaining cup of milk. Cook and stir until thickened. Add cheddar cheese and stir until melted.
Add sauce to pasta pot and stir well. Turn mixture out into a greased baking dish. Sprinkle with Parmesan. Can be covered and refrigerated at this point. Just before baking slice tomatoes and drain on paper towels. Arrange tomatoes on top of casserole and season with salt and pepper, and sprinkle with more Parmesan. Bake pasta at 350 for 30-45 minutes until hot and bubbly. Garnish with lots of fresh basil. Serves 4-6