by Maura
Pasta is one of my favorite foods and I could drink red sauce (aka gravy, aka Sunday sauce). Unfortunately, Will is not a big fan of red sauce. He loves creamy, cheesy sauces and anything with wine and butter. Who doesn't? In an (unending) effort to make our meals healthier, I fooled around with a few recipes for "skinny" fettuccine alfredo. Surprisingly, I came up with a pretty good recipe. To no one's surprise, it's not all that healthy. In retrospect, we could have done without the shrimp. The pasta was creamy and surprisingly decadent. I see us adding this to our pasta repertoire.
Ingredients
6 oz of thin fettuccine
2 tbsp butter, divided
1 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp flour
3/4 c. low fat milk (2%)
1/4 c. half-and-half
1/2 c. grated parmesan cheese
3 c. broccoli florets
1/2 lb. shrimp, cleaned and de-veined
zest of 1 lemon, divided
1/2 tsp salt
ground pepper, to taste
1. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and half of lemon zest. Cook pasta according to directions.
2. Melt 1 tbsp of butter in a large, nonstick pan. Sautee garlic until fragrant. Stir in flour slowly and cook for a minute. Add milk and half-and-half and cook until slightly thickened, stirring constantly.
3. When there is about 4 minutes left before the pasta reaches al dente, add broccoli florets to the pasta water with the pasta.
4. In a separate pan, cook shrimp in 1 tbsp of butter until pink, about 5 minutes.
5. When sauce begins to thicken, add salt, remainder of lemon zest and pepper.
6. Drain pasta and broccoli and reserve some of the cooking water.
7. Add pasta, broccoli and shrimp to the sauce and stir to coat. Add pasta water, as necessary, to thin out the sauce. Top with extra grated cheese and pepper. Enjoy!
I am absolutely making this soon and I think I'll include the shrimp for Mike. He totally thanks you in advance.
Posted by: Jennie | August 30, 2012 at 12:31 PM