Pasta with Chicken and Grapes

This is one of the recipes I made for Luigi’s party. The mixture is rather unorthodox for Italians and some loved it while others wouldn’t even taste it. But, it’s a recipe that I found years ago in a cookbook and I used to make it whenever we had a potluck at work, where it always got rave reviews. Unfortunately, I don’t remember what cookbook I found it in, but if someone out there wants to take credit, let me know. (Oh, and by the way, as you’ll see from the ingredients, I don’t think it counts as low fat, but it’s very tasty.)

The recipe calls for pesto sauce and, since it only uses a small amount, you can get away with some jarred sauce. For Luigi’s party I made a mega-batch, so I made homemade pesto. You can’t beat the flavor.

Ingredients

1 ½ cups short pasta (like penne, twists, bow ties)
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 teaspoons pesto sauce
1 tablespoon sour cream
6 oz cooked chicken breast
1-2 celery stalks
1 cup red grapes (seedless is better, if possible)
1 carrot

Dressing:
1 tablespoon vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

I’m going to assume that you have some poached chicken breast just hanging around. If not, poach some up a few hours before you need it so that it has time to cool.

Mix the dressing and set it aside until the pasta is cooked. Once the pasta has been cooked, drain it, transfer it to a bowl, mix in the dressing and allow it to cool.

While the pasta is cooling, mix the mayonnaise, pesto sauce and sour cream in a bowl. Cut the chicken into strips, cut the celery into narrow slices, halve the grapes and remove any seeds and cut the carrots into matchsticks.

Once the pasta is cool, add the chicken, celery, grapes, carrots and mayonnaise mixture and stir to mix thoroughly. Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed.

This is best if you let it sit for a while so that the flavors are fully blended, so cover it tightly and refrigerate it for a few hours before eating.

(Sorry, I don’t have a picture, but I haven’t made this since the party because we were eating leftovers for days.)

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