White Pasta Recipe

Okay, so I know I've been slacking after only doing one post. I'll try to be better! Here's the recipe I promised so many of you for the white pasta. Buon appetito!

Farfalle Al Sugo Bianco

1 package/box of Farfalle pasta (bowtie)

3 T butter*

1 tsp minced garlic

1 cup heavy cream

1 8oz pkg Neufchatel cheese**

1/2 cup parmesan cheese, plus extra for topping.

Cook the pasta in boiling, salted water. Be sure to salt it, because otherwise the pasta gets no flavor in it. Cook it until it's al dente, which really means "to the tooth", which really means cook it until it's at the tenderness you prefer, but I highly recommend not going for mushy noodles...just a suggestion.

In a medium sauce pan, over medium heat, melt the butter with the garlic. Let it simmer for a second or two until you can smell it a little...not a lot. Add the cream cheese and cream. Stir until smooth and warm. I don't recommend letting it boil. With the cream and the butter, it will start separating and no one likes that. You can, however keep it over low heat until your pasta is done cooking. Just be sure to stir it fairly often. Stir in the parmesan right before adding it to the drained pasta.

 

Honestly, this pasta dish is good by itself, but if you prefer to have other flavors with it (like I do), here are some of my favorite additions you can make:

Sauteed crimini mushrooms (also known as "Baby Bellas"): Clean and slice the mushrooms, saute over medium heat with olive oil, garlic, and a little salt, until tender. Yum.

Prosciutto ham: Or regular ham, I guess, but really, prosciutto is where it's at.

Pesto: If you and yours are pesto lovers like I am, mix a tablespoon or two into the whole dish of pasta. If no one else at your dinner table shares your love of the stuff, just put a little on top of your plateful and let them go on living their lack-luster lives. Ha! Kidding. Not really.

Chicken: Why not?

Bacon: I've never tried this, but I hear that bacon makes everything better.

Veggies: ...of any sort. I imagine that asparagus would be especially good, but I tend to think asparagus is fantastic anyway.

*I feel like I need to have a disclaimer in here about using butter as opposed to margarine. Just use butter in this recipe. Okay. In every recipe you have. I'll give you a moment to rid yourself of any margarine you may have lying around...see? It's very freeing, isn't it? You're welcome.

** I like to Neufchatel cheese (a.k.a. 1/3 less fat cream cheese) instead of cream cheese, which you really could use instead. But the Neufchatel tastes the same and has the same texture, so why WOULDN'T you use it?

Italy

It's raining and freezing outside. We are doomed to go nowhere tonight. Or ARE we?! Henry and I packed our fake bags and headed to Italy tonight.

We started off the evening by cooking his favorite and my extra-specialty: Farfalle Al Sugo Bianco (or as he likes to call it, "White Pasta", whatever you want to call it is fine). It's really just bowtie pasta with my take on alfredo sauce with it. If I were to make it the way I really like it, it would have had prosciutto and a little pesto added too. (I'm working on Henry and trying to get him to eat "the green things". All in good time.)

So we cleaned our plates and took a walk to see the tourist attractions (or down the stairs to the tv equipped with Netflix). Unfortunately, since his bedtime is 8:30, we had very little to time to take pictures or really learn very much, but here is a recap of what we did find out about Italy:

Venice is known as the most beautiful city in the world. We all know their streets are really canals and they have quirky little boats called gondolas. One interesting little piece of info we caught was that in the city of Venice, they will only issue three new gondolier licenses per year even though hundreds apply. I guess it's nothing like driving a taxi here in the states...

There's an annual horse race in Siena that bids the different neighborhoods against each other. There's some huge rivalry and everyone hates each other.

Ferrari.

Sicily is an island. Thought you should know.

The Vatican has ruled the Catholic religion for over 17 centuries. Yeow.

Rome. Coliseum. Aqueducts.

Italy is the world's largest wine producer (good thing I didn't skip that with dinner!)

Apparently they kiss everyone over there. A lot. I'm not too sure I could go along with that. I have issues with bodily fluids and personal space. Ugh. Do you think if they go in for the smooch and you sneeze, they'll lay off? Doubtful. Maybe a decent distraction could help one avoid the smackers...

Speaking of distraction, I got a little side-tracked.

So Henry and I learned a few tidbits of information, took a couple of pictures and had a great dinner.  We plan to revisit Italy often (because who wouldn't?), but have some other great recipes from other great countries that are dying to be tried. Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

Arrivederci!