Pasta Alfredo

I still haven't managed to get my church shots. It'll have to be tomorrow I guess.

That being the case I've resorted to blipping tonight's dinner.

I really like cooking Italian food as the best italian recipes are really simple and taste fantastic. This is a really simple creamy pasta dish which I learned while working as a KP in an Italian restraunt in my youth. I did a vegetarian version tonight but if you want a meatier version you can either add finely cut bacon or parma ham at the start, or thin slices of cooked ham just before you add the wine.

Here's the recipe for the sauce, you'll want to time your pasta so it is ready no maore than about 5 minutes after the sauce as if you heat it for too long it will start to seperate.

Finely slice about 12 closed cup mushrooms.

Finely chop 1 decent sized onion and 4-5 cloves of garlic. I always find for the garlic it's best to smash it with the flat side of a large knife then chop it.

Heat between 50 and 100 grammes of butter in a large frying pan (you can use marge instead here if you like).

Fry the onion, garlic and mushrooms until they have reduced to about half their size.

Add in a handfull or two of petits pois, then pout in between half a glass and a glass of dry white wine.

When the liquid is bubbling through add about 30 - 50ml of double or whipping cream (I find whipping works better, but double will do the trick).

Season well with salt and pepper.

At this point you have to make sure it is properly cooked and the whole mixture is bubbling in the pan or it will give you an upset stomach.

Once it's all cooked through and your pasta is ready and drained add the sauce to the pasta and mix through thoroughly, then add some freshly grated parmesan to taste.

Serve with garlic bread and salad.

The great thing about this sauce is that it can be used for other stuff too. If you leave out the petits pois and the parmesan you use it with steak. If you wait until the steak is cooked and the meat is resting then cook it in the pan the steak was in you'll have a great Dianne sauce. Alternatively leave out the petits pois, mushrooms and parmesan then, when the cream is boiling through, add wholegrain mustard to taste you'll get a really nice mustard sauce for with steak.