Creamy Pesto Sauce

This is a great pesto sauce. Of course I found this lovely recipe on Pinterest, which has now become my go to source for finding recipes. I needed to find a homemade pesto sauce recipe for a couple of reasons...1- My brother said that it would be the best sauce to go with these fantastic Chicken Sausage and Kale Ravioli's that I got at Costco..and 2- I have an abundance of basil growing in my herb garden and it was getting a little tall and needed some thinning. Enjoy!



3/4 cup fresh basil leaves, packed
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
3 tablespoons pine nuts
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 tsp kosher salt and coarsely ground pepper, each
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter
12 oz fettuccine pasta (For GF, use your favorite gluten free pasta)

1. Bring 4 quarts of water to boil, then add 1 tablespoon kosher salt and 12 ounces pasta, and cook until al dente. Drain the pasta and set aside. Meanwhile, make the pesto.

2. To the workbowl of a food processor, add basil, 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, pine nuts, garlic cloves, and salt and pepper. Process while slowly drizzling in olive oil. Next add the cream and butter to a heavy-bottomed saucepan set over medium heat. Pour in the pesto, stir until well combined, and let simmer for 2-3 minutes. Turn off the heat, add the the remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, and stir until melted and combined.

3. Add the drained pasta to the sauce and gently stir together.

Optional step 4. At this point you can either plate and top with hot rotisserie chicken, or if your chicken is already chopped and is cold from the fridge, go ahead and add it to the pasta and stir together for 2 minutes to heat up the chicken.

**Randi's Side Notes**
~ This would be good on any type of pasta, but it was FANTASTIC on the Chicken Sausage and Kale Ravioli from Costco.
~ Since my blender blades don't reach the bottom of my blender I had to add quite a bit extra olive oil. It still tasted great, but a little on the oily side.
~ To make this gluten free just serve over your favorite gluten free noodles.