Creamy Caprese Pasta

I was in a comfort food mood the other night and just was not excited about a chicken and veggie dish I had planned. Nothing against that dish, but pasta was calling my name... loudly. It was 5:30 and I did not want to make anything that involved me heading to the store. Lucky for me, I realized I had all of the ingredients for a Caprese something. I also had a rotisserie chicken in the fridge and pasta basics in the pantry. Bam - now we're in business. In the archives of my brain, I recalled this recipe from How Sweet Eats in my Google Reader. And that's how this was born:

Yum.

Creamy Caprese Pasta

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Ingredients:

1 pound of pasta (whatever you like! I used a mixture of bowtie and cavatappi since that's what I had, and the mixture looked interesting together)

1 1/2 cups of your favorite tomato pasta sauce

3/4 cup heavy cream or half and half

1/3 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese + more for garnish

shredded chicken (I used 1 rotisserie chicken)

4-6 ounces fresh mozzarella, cut into cubes

1 pint of grape tomatoes, sliced in half

1 bunch of fresh basil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Boil water and cook pasta according to directions.

While pasta is cooking, heat tomato sauce over low heat in a large saucepan. Once warm, stir in heavy cream and grated parmesan. Once pasta is done cooking, drain and dump into the sauce, mixing to coat and turning off heat. Fold in chicken, mozzarella cubes and tomatoes, then chop 3-4 fresh basil leaves and add them in too. Once combined, spray a baking dish with non-stick spray and pour the entire pasta mixture into the dish. Top with fresh mozzarella rounds. Bake for 25 minutes, or until cheese is golden and bubbly.

Top with additional fresh basil and grated cheese.

Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from HowSweetEats.com