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Phenomenal Chicken and Pasta in Creamy Pesto Sauce

"An extremely delicious meal: the crunch of pine nuts and the tang of sun-dried tomatoes combine with chicken and pasta in a heavenly pesto cream sauce. Be sure to taste and salt before serving, because depending on what kind of chicken broth you use, the dish may require no salt at all or may be extremely under-salted."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 23 ingredients
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Phenomenal Chicken and Pasta in Creamy Pesto Sauce

Why it works: Basil and pine match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 332 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Phenomenal Chicken and Pasta in Creamy Pesto Sauce

6 servings
Prep40 min
Cook15 min

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1006Calories
56 gProtein
51 gFat
78 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 14 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Pasta1 cup cooked (140g)220
Pine Nut1 oz (28g)191
Chicken100g cooked165
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Parmesan Cheese1 oz (28g)110
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Oregano1 tsp dried (1.8g)5
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Basil5 leaves fresh (2.5g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Basil + pinetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together332 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  2. Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Basil + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Garlic + olivetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Garlic + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (basil, clove, garlic, parmesan cheese, pine, tomato, olive):

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Lentilsfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against basil, clove, garlic, parmesan cheese, pine, tomato, olive. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.