First wash your basil leaves and remember to remove any blackened leaves - this is so your pesto can last longer as I like to make the paste in large batch. In this first step, also - salt a big pot of boiling water with a splash of olive oil and pour your pasta in to cook.
Put the Basil leaves in a food processor/blender - whichever you have at home. Pour in the olive oil, pepper and salt. Blend lightly.
Peel the skin off your garlic cloves, and I would recommend to use a pestle and mortar to bruise the garlic before adding to the mixture, this would bring the garlic taste to the next level. After adding in garlic, pour in your parmesan cheese and continue to blend the mixture. These two are totally up to your taste. You can put more garlic or more cheese.
For the meat portion of the dish, generally you can grill a salt and pepper seasoned-chicken breast and then slice it to bite size pieces as a topping. Or in my case/version, I panfried my bacon (without any oil, I use the fat rendered from the bacon to complete frying the bacon bits).. and voila - you are done!
Before draining your pasta, collect a cup of pasta water to create the sauce consistency.
Mix your pesto sauce onto your pasta and pour in that cup of pasta water and you will have a pan of Pasta la pesto... garnish with bacon bits. Or top it off with the bite-sized chicken breast.
Enjoy your meal with a refreshing pot of mint tea. I dont know why, but that just does it for me.
