Alfredo bowties

My mother never made an Alfredo sauce for pasta (pasta was called macaroni back then, and elbows were called elbow macaroni). But she did make a lot of different kinds of pasta dishes, usually they were seasoned with the pan dripping from the meatloaf, or the chops, or some other meat she fried, or braised. And we thought it was a special treat. We got bow ties often. And I love bow ties. I used to make "buttons and bows" for my kids. I'll post that recipe sometime later on.

So, when I first tasted anything Alfredo, I fell in love with the creamy, white, cheesy sauce.

After many years, I have, what I think is, a perfected recipe, at least to mine and Alan's taste, which sort of spoils us for any restaurant recipe.

What you need:

1 pint heavy cream
2 cups finely grated Parmesan cheese (I always grate my own)
1/8 stick of butter
2 pieces of bacon cooked and crumpled into small pieces
1 tspn garlic salt

This is so easy, you'll love it. And I usually incorporate it with the bow ties, or if I'm being really fancy, I use fettuccine.

Just melt the butter in a pan, sprinkle into the melted butter the garlic salt. Stir. Add to that the heavy cream. Stir. Bring this mixture to a slow boil (stirring frequently) and lower the heat. I use a whisk to incorporate all the ingredients. Add the cheese after you have lowered the heat to low (2 on an electric stove, low on a gas stove). This will simmer. I let it simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes or so.

While the cream mixture is cooking down, I make the pasta, whatever you want to use is okay. No more than 1/2 pound, though. If you need to make more than 1/2 pound of macaroni adjust the ingredients accordingly. After I drain the pasta, I put it right into the sauce and stir it all together, and turn off the heat. I let it set for about 5 minutes and top with crumbled bacon.

NOTE: I have also used 1/2 and 1/2 instead of the heavy cream, but the texture of the heavy cream is much better and it thickens better as well.

NOTE #2: This recipe serves four "older" people. Serve with a side salad of greens, etc. And if you want add some garlic bread as well. High on carbs but oh so good. What can I say, I'm Italian!

ttfn

ttfn