BAKED PESTO CHICKEN WITH SPINACH

Chicken.  Pesto.  Spinach.  Pasta.  Melty, broiled cheese.  Do I need to tell you more, or are you already convinced you need to make this meal?  Okay, one more important thing to tell you: remember this pasta?  I purchased Rao's sauce again, and it MADE this dish.

Layer sauce, spinach, seasoned chicken

The good stuff.

Spread pesto over chicken

After cooking, top with cheese!

Broiled cheese: beautiful.  Broiled spinach: woof.

Ingredients

1.5-2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken tenders
1 jar pesto, or about 1 cup homemade
1 jar marinara sauce (or your favorite pasta sauce)
2 cups shredded mozzarella or Italian cheese blend
1 bag baby spinach, 9 oz.
Italian seasoning
Coarse kosher salt
pepper
1/2 lb pasta

Preheat oven to 375.  Start a large pot of water boiling for pasta.  Coat bottom of 9x13 baking dish with about 1/2 cup marinara sauce.  Lay spinach leaves on top.  Season both sides of chicken with salt, pepper and Italian seasoning.  Place on top of spinach, avoiding overlapping.  Spread pesto on top of chicken.  Cover with foil and bake for about 20 minutes, until chicken is almost done.  Remove from oven and sprinkle cheese on top, put the foil back on and bake for about 5 minutes, until cheese is melted.  Remove foil and broil for about 3 minutes, until cheese is browned and bubbly.  While chicken is baking, boil pasta in salted water according to package directions.    Drain pasta and mix with remaining marinara sauce.  Serve chicken over pasta.