Pasta Alfredo

The sauce has a bit of a nutty flavor from the nutmeg, a bit of tangy flavor from the lemon, and combined with the other ingredients is a filling main dish "comfort" food.

 Ingredients:
 (Start cooking both pasta and sauce on separate burners at the same time)

• 16 oz pkg of bow tie pasta

Cook to Al dente (usually 2 minutes less than indicated on the package) in boiling salted water, drain.

Alfredo Sauce:

3/4 cup half and half 

3/4 cream cheese

1/2 tsp lemon juice

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp. garlic

1/2 tsp of garlic salt

1/4 tsp  pepper 

• Garnish - Ranch Tortilla Chips (optional)

Put all ingredients in a saucepan and cook on medium heat for approximately 15 minutes until thickened.  Pour over pasta.   If desired, garnish with Ranch flavored tortilla chips (which can be crumpled on the top to add texture and flavor) then serve.

Linking up to Presto Pasta Night which is hosted on 8/17/12 by Simona at http://briciole.typepad.com/.
Be sure to check out all of the other wonderful pasta creations by other participants:)

Artichoke & Parmesan Pasta Casserole

A lighter pasta dish with a hint of artichoke and cheese.   This recipe is from
http://www.blisstree.com/bakingdelights/artichoke-parmesan-pasta/
and the reviews for it are mixed.  My son loved it, especially the cheese layer on the top.    I like a more creamy, cheesy pasta dish and I would prefer it with a little garlic, but than again, I am garlic lover.  I am also conditioned that if a casserole goes in the oven, it must be topped with crushed crackers, but I do admit I like the light but a bit crunchy taste that the cheese topping brings.  If you are looking for a lighter pasta than the standard cream based, this is worth trying.

• 1 lb pasta
• 1 1/2 cups mozzarella
• 1/2 cup Parmesan
• 1 large can chopped artichoke hearts
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 cup milk or half and half
• Non-Stick Coating Spray
• Salt and pepper to taste

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.  Cook the pasta according to the package - I used Meijer's brand Farfelle which required bringing water with salt to boiling then add pasta, and cook for 11 minute, but pastas seem to vary by brand and type.  Once cooked to Al dente, drain pasta.   I spritzed the pasta with non-cook spray and tossed, but that is optional.

Chop onion and artichoke.  The original recipe called for sauteing the onion in a little olive oil until transparent, but I used the onion raw instead. 

Mix the onion, artichoke and milk in with the pasta together.   Add a few dashes of salt and pepper.

 

 Spray the baking dish with non-stick coating, then transfer the mixture from the pan to the baking dish.

 

Put Mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese on top of the pasta and put in the oven..

Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until the cheese starts browning a little on the top.  I cut into 9 large pieces as it was the main dish, but we still had plenty left over and it should freeze well if you didn't want leftover the next day. 

Presto Pasta Nights #148

 

 I am participating in Presto Pasta Nights being hosted this week over at Sweet and Savory.  I am contributing my Frugal Quattro Formaggi Plus.   If you are a pasta lover, go over and check out all of the other tasty links.over at Presto Pasta Nights.

RANCH BLACK OLIVE BOWTIE PASTA SALAD

This is a good alternative to a standard ranch pasta salad to take on a picnic or barbeque as it does not contain any mayonnaise and holds up a bit better as the pasta is firmer. 1 lb box bowtie pasta Cook according to directions on the box, drain and place in large bowl. Add 2 tbsp of margarine, olive oil and and toss to distribute (keeps pasta from sticking together). Put in fridge while you prepare dressing.

Dressing:

• 1 pkg. Ranch dressing packet (Hidden Valley brand is recommended)
• 1 3 oz can finely chopped black olives
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/2 tsp garlic salt
• 1/2 tsp dill
• 1/2 cup shredded paremsan or Italian cheese

Mix dressing together throughly using the above ingredients.

Remove the pasta salad from the fridge and pour in 1 1/2 cups of the above dressing and toss. If you want your salad to be creamier, you could use the entire 2 cups of the above dressing that was made.

Other add-ins to this salad are:

• Sunflower seeds
• Green olives
• Finely chopped red or green pepper

If pressed for space in small cooler, you could put the pasta salad in a zip lock bag.

If it is going to be left out for a period of time, you could take a larger bowl, fill it full of ice and pour the pasta salad into a smaller bowl that you put inside the larger one and cover it with a plate for easy access (but keep the bugs out).

DIECI FORMAGGI

Yesterday I worked on making quattro formaggi again and tweaked the recipe again. I used whipping cream instead of half and half. As the total of the types of cheeses used was ten, this would be Dieci (which means 10 in Italian) Formaggi. This time I added another 1/4 tsp. of nutmeg for a total of 1/2 tsp., a 1/2 tsp of seasoned salt and 1/4 tsp of black pepper I still used the 8 oz pkg of Italian blend cheese (that has 6 different cheeses) but also added 1 cup of shredded Fiesta blend, which is Monterrey Jack, Cheddar, Queso Quesadilla and Asadero cheese). The mixture came out a little too thick to put on the pasta, so I added two tablespoons of margarine (my favorite kind, The "I Can't Believe It Is Not Butter" Mediterranean blend). This was a mistake because it then became way too soupy. 

 I didn't try to doctor it anymore at this point, just poured it on the cooked pasta and stirred it up.The end result was it was more rich and a little more flavorful than the last attempt and tasted ok, but it was not stunning, and was also too fattening, cost at least $3 more and with too much competition between all of the cheeses to get tones of any one of them when eating.

I have decided I am going to give up trying to duplicate the one from the restaurant and use this as a base to just come up with something on my own that will not be as good, but more affordable and easier to make.






Next time I am going to try using a white sauce as a base, just adding the Italian Blend cheeses to that along with 1/2 tsp of nutmeg, 1/4 tsp of seasoned salt, 1/4 black pepper, 1 tsp Italian Seasoning and maybe 1 tsp of dill.

FRUGAL QUATTRO FORMAGGI PLUS

One our favorite dishes at a local restaurant is Quattro Formaggi but as the last time we went their it ran around $13 a plate. I searched the internet and found dozens of recipes and this was my attempt to try to copy it.

Quattro Formaggi means "four cheese" in Italian, but I used the Italian Blend Fancy Shredded Blend from Walmart and it contains six cheeses (Mozzarella, Provolone, Parmesan, Romano, Fontina and Asiago so that would be where the "plus" in the title comes in. I chose this as this as:

It contains all of the cheeses that were recommended in many of the recipes I researched: Mozzarella, Parmesan, Romano and Fontina (although several recipes contained Gorgonzola, Gouda, Ricotta, Gruyere or Marscarpone).

Walmart has a limited selection of cheeses and gourmet cheeses at other stores start at $7 lb. The in this bag  were already shredded/grated and it saved time as I did not need to shred/grate it.

The bag of cheese was affordable at $1.67 for an 8 oz bag.  The total cost to make this was under $5.00 for approximately 6 servings.

This is recipe I came up with which turned out to be closest without breaking the bank to make it:



Pasta
1 box Barilla Medium Shell Pasta
2 TBSP margarine

Cook according to directions on the box. When done, drain and place in an oven safe bow and mix in the margarine. Place in oven on low heat to keep it warm.

Sauce
1 16 oz box of Half and Half
1 8 oz bag of Walmart Fancy Shredded Italian Blend Cheese
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper


Slowly warm the Half-and-Half on medium heat and the cheese. Once all of the cheese is added, add the nutmeg. Continue to cook until the all of the cheese is melted. It will be a sticky consistency and look like this:

Pour the sauce over the pasta and serve.


This is part of Presto Pasta Nights being hosted over at Sweet and Savory.  Go over and check out all of the other amazing pasta dishes!