Pesto Mascarpone Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Patrick and I waited all CSA fall session for beets to show up. Finally with about 3 weeks left in our session there were beets! I couldn't believe it when I saw our options that week and there were actually beets...

Who would've ever "thunk" that one day we'd be raving about beets?! Roasted fresh beets are so delicious. We put them in salads a lot (see here, here, and here), made a soup once, pickled them once too, made a beet pasta, and the most adventurous was a chocolate beet cake!

Wait... I got distracted by the beets. Today we're sharing a recipe for pesto mascarpone stuffed chicken breasts which happened to be served aside a spinach salad with beets and goat cheese. Even though we made this a few weeks ago we both commented that it was very typical of a spring dish for us. Beets show up on the CSA list in the early spring as well as lots of tender greens. The pesto in the chicken also added a fresh flavor. All this made us yearn for the warmer weather!

Without adding too much more introduction fluff and beet rambling it should be noted that this was a "wing it" recipe so everything below is approximate!

Pesto Mascarpone Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Ingredients

4 tbsp pesto*

1/2 cup mascarpone

2 chicken breasts

breadcrumbs

olive oil

salt and pepper

Directions

   Mix together pesto and mascarpone, set aside. Flatten chicken breasts with a meat tenderizer (or whatever gets it flat). Sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper. Spread pesto mixture over flattened chicken breast. Roll each one up and secure with toothpicks. Sprinkle some breadcrumbs over top and drizzle with olive oil.

   Bake in a 350F oven for 30 minutes (check internal temperature for doneness). Slice and serve.

*We froze pesto at the end of the summer in ice cubes. It's been nice to stretch summer flavors throughout the winter months.

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