Chicken Meatballs with Spinach Pesto and Pasta

These were super simple to put together and dinner was ready in les than 30 minutes.  Everyone agreed this was tasty and I ended up eating the left overs for lunch for the next 2 days. I sprayed them with a little olive oil in order to make sure the exterior got a little crunchy. My dad always had to keep me away when he was browning meatballs.  Actually eventually he jsut made me a tiny crunchy one that he left out the sauce for a little pre-dinner snack. I think this style of pasta is the best for holding a thick sauce. You can use any nut really as long as you toast them.

Ingredients for the Chicken Meatballs

1 large egg
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp salt free onion and herb seasoning (or 1 tsp onion powder and 1 tsp Italian seasoning)
1 tbsp dried or minced fresh parsley
1/2 cup of panko breadcrumbs
1/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese
2 cloves of garlic minced or pressed
1 lb ground breast meat chicken

1/2 lb of cellentani pasta
Salt

Ingredients for the Spinach Pesto

3 large handfuls of baby spinach
1 clove of garlic
1/2 cup of walnuts, toasted
2 tbsp of grated parmesan cheese
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/2 cup of olive oil
1/2 tsp of salt
Pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 and put on a pot of water to boil.  You can always turn it down if it boils too early. For the meatballs, in a medium mixing bowl combine all of the wet ingredients. Then add all of the dry ingredients except the ground chicken. Mix all ingredients to combine and then add the chicken.  With your hands, combine the chicken with the other ingredients. Form into 15 balls and place on a baking sheet. Bake the meatballs for 20-25 minutes until fully cooked through.

For the Spinach Pesto, while the meatballs are baking put the walnuts on another baking sheet and toast in the same oven.  I usually find 5-8 minutes is the right time.  They should be fragrant and lightly browned but take care not to burn them. Combine all of the pesto ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

Salt your pasta water and cook the pasta according to the package directions.  Drain and place into a large bowl.  The pesto recipe will make more than you need to coat the pasta. Add a few tablespoons of pesto to the pasta and toss to combine.  Add more pesto if you need to to make sure all of the pasta is well coated.  Add the meatballs on top of the pasta mixture and serve with the additional pesto on the side in case anyone would like to add more.