Friday, April 8, 2011

Fettucine Alfredo

I have GOT to learn to take better pictures. 

I must pause, first, to say that this is not an authentic fettucine al burro. It really isn't Italian at all. It's American pasta. But it is so good.


Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 package cream cheese
1 cup milk
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder (Real garlic is better, I was just feeling lazy. Go for 2-3 cloves)
1/2 tsp pepper

You know it sounds good. Nothin' says lovin' like your entire day's worth of saturated fat at one sitting. 


Put butter in pan. Aren't you glad I'm hear to explain these things to you? With pictures?


Turn the heat on to medium. Add salt, pepper and garlic. I actually like a little more pepper, but the kids were eating, too. 


Add the cream cheese. Yes, the entire package. Don't look at the nutritional facts. Just don't. 


Grab your whisk and give it a stir. It will look all curdled and icky. Don't panic. This is normal. Just keep heating and whisking.

Getting better...


See? Lovely. This is the point at which my kids start hanging around the kitchen saying things like, "WHAT is that SMELL? I want to BATHE in it!" 


Add the 1 cup of milk. At this point it will get all runny and it'll look like you ruined the whole thing. Don't panic. Honestly, have I ever lead you wrong before? 

Don't answer that. 

Speaking of leading you wrong, see that other burner that's on in the picture? That's under a pot of boiling pasta. You actually need pasta in this recipe, too. Unless you feel like eating alfredo sauce with a spoon. Or dipping breadsticks into it. Or pouring it over steamed broccoli. Mmmmmm..

Anyway. I used linguine this time, since I had some in the pantry. You could pretty much use whatever you like. So pause to get some water boiling. 


Back to the sauce.. just keep stirring and heating and it'll thicken up in about 5 minutes. Turn it down to low or take it off the heat altogether. Cook up your chicken. I prefer to cook whole chickens, then use the meat in various dishes. I threw some meat in a pan to brown a little bit. Chicken is optional.


Add your chicken and pasta to the pan and give it a good stir. Voila! You can also throw in veggies if you like that kind of thing. 

P.S. I doubled the pasta, but forgot to double the sauce. So it should actually be quite a bit more saucy than this. We do like things saucy around here. 

5 comments:

  1. Oooh....forgot to tell you today that I made this delicious dish last nigt! It was yummy. Added chicken & asperagus.
    Thanks for the recipe!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Did you cook the asparagus first or just throw it in? I'm never really sure what to do with it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I "lightly" steamed it first so it didn't get too limpy...and it would survive future heating up in the microwave. I added a tsp of milk when heating up and it was just as yummy as the first day=)

    ReplyDelete