I will be the first to admit that I have a heavy pasta addiction. My absolute favorite pasta dish is my chunky garden sauce with thin spaghetti or angel hair. My second favorite pasta dish is probably anything alfredo. Within a few minutes, you can make a full meal. It even beats Rachel Ray’s thirty minute meals.

Tonight I made rotelle (the spirally pasta) with broccoli in an alfredo sauce. You can, too.

Alfredo ingredients

INGREDIENTS:
Rotelle
Broccoli
Butter
Light cream
Parmesan cheese

Start boiling your water before preparing the sauce.

Once your water boils, add your pasta. Save the broccoli until the last couple of minutes of your pasta’s cook time.

In the video below, I show you how to make the sauce. Edited 01/16/2011: For some reason, most of the audio in the video I made is gone. I didn’t take pictures of the process because I was taking video, and I also tend to eyeball things when cooking, so I’ll try my best to explain.

1. Put your water on and bring it to a boil. When it comes to a boil, add your pasta. Hold your broccoli until the last couple of minutes. (Mine was the frozen kind, so it cooks pretty fast.)
2. Turn the heat under your second sauce pan to low. Let it warm up, then add enough butter to coat the bottom of the pan very well.
3. Add some cream. Using a whip, blend the cream and butter.
4. Add some grated cheese. Whip until the butter, cream, and cheese are well blended, then continue whipping until it reaches consistency. You may have to add more cream and cheese, depending on how many people you are cooking for. For myself, I made two cups of pasta and a cup of broccoli, and I prefer lots of sauce, so it took some balancing to get it right.
5. Check on your pasta. I taste test. At this point, you want it al dente — not too hard, not too soft; a couple of minutes away from perfect. Add your broccoli, and in a couple of minutes, check your pasta again. Once it’s done cooking, shut off your heat and strain the pasta and broccoli.
6. Serve the alfredo sauce over your pasta and broccoli, and enjoy!

Tips:

• If your sauce is too thin, add some more grated cheese. If it’s too thick, add some more cream.
• As your sauce cools, it will thicken, so if it looks too thin to your liking while it’s on the heat, take it off the heat for a few minutes.
• Once you’re done cooking, get that pan rinsed or soaking right away. Caked on alfredo sauce is a bitch to scrub off. I’m a freak and rinse mine before I even eat.

Enjoy your alfredo!

Please let me know if you have any questions! Share your favorite alfredo recipes in the comments.