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.

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.

Enjoy your meal with a refreshing pot of mint tea. I don’t know why, but that just does it for me.