Grilled Chicken Penne al Fresco

MSuper easy and fairly inexpensive! Another Pampered Chef one.

4 garlic cloves, peeled
2 cups grape or cherry tomatoes (I used grape)
3 cups uncooked mezze penne pasta (I used plain penne)
3 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup dry white wine (I used chardonnay)
1/2 tsp each salt and coarsely ground black pepper
1 1/4 cups lightly packed fresh basil leaves, divided
1 oz Parmesan cheese, grated (about 1/4 cup packed - I used from the can)
2 cups diced grilled chicken breasts (easiest to grill before starting)

Spray Deep Covered Baker with olive oil using Kitchen Spritzer (I used can spray canola oil the first time I made this and spread coconut oil the second). Slice garlic into baker using Garlic Slicer (I smashed gloves with knife and cut into small pieces). Add tomatoes.

Cover; microwave on high 4-5 minutes or until tomatoes begin to burst (mine burst pretty quick so I just let it go the full 5 minutes), stirring after 2 minutes.

Crush tomatoes using Mix 'n Chop (if you don't have this, its a great tool!). Add pasta, broth, wine, salt, and black pepper.

Return baker to microwave; cover and microwave on high 16-18 minutes or until pasta is tender, stirring after 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, coarsely chop basil with Chef's Knife. Reserve 2 tablespoons for garnish. Grate cheese using Rotary Grater.

Carefully remove baker from microwave and remove lid, lifting away from you. Add remaining basil, cheese, and chicken to baker; mix well.

Garnish with reserved basil, additional Parmesan cheese and black pepper, if desired.

** I made the mistake of using dried basil leaves, estimating the amount but I used WAY to much! I just used what I had left, which was probably about 1/4 cup, but if I were to use dried again I'd probably just sprinkle some on until it looked good! Next time I make this, I will just get fresh basil leaves.

Other notes:
If you don't want to use wine, 3/4 cup chicken broth can be substituted.

Any tube-shaped pasta requiring 9-11 minutes cook time, such as penne or rigatoni, can be substituted for the mezze penne pasta.

**update 10/5/14: this time I used cooking wine and fresh basil, great flavor!  I chopped the basil up in a kitchenaid chopper, pretty easy.  Again, too much basil for my taste so I just sprinkled it in until it looked good instead of measuring.  I'm not sure how much garlic I used the first time but today I only used 2 cloves and it was great. Three might have worked but I think 4 would have been too much.  I also used a full box of penne (more than 3 cups) and it was fine.