Healthy & Lightened Whole Wheat Pasta Alfredo


Ingredients:
- 1 Pound Whole Wheat Spaghetti or Linguine
- 1 Cup Non-Fat Ricotta
- 1 Cup Cauliflower Puree (use frozen cauliflower, cook and mash or puree in a food processor or blender)
- 1 Cup Frozen Peas
- 6 Sun-Dried or Oven Roasted Tomatoes - cut into small pieces (don't use oil cured or packed) optional
- 1/4 Cup Olive Oil
- 3 or 4 Garlic Cloves - minced
- 1 Bunch of Basil Leaves - chiffonade for garnish
- Parmesan Cheese - for garnish
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. When it reaches a boil, add in two tablespoons of salt before adding the pasta to the water. Cook the pasta until al dente, according to the package directions. One minute before the pasta is done, add in the frozen peas to defrost and cook through. If using very dry sun-dried tomatoes, add them to the pasta cooking water too so they will reconstitute; otherwise if the sun-dried tomatoes are pliable, add them to the pasta once it's drained.
- Before draining the pasta, reserve 2 cups of the pasta cooking water. Drain the pasta and peas and keep warm in the pasta pot.
- In a small sauce pot, heat the quarter cup of olive oil and the minced garlic cloves over low-medium heat until the garlic begins to caramelize - about 3 minutes. Reduce heat to low to keep the garlic from burning. Remove from heat and pour the garlic and oil mixture over the cooked pasta and peas.
- In a medium bowl, mix together the pureed cauliflower and ricotta cheese. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper. Thin the mixture starting with one cup of the reserved pasta cooking water. If the ricotta and cauliflower mixture is too thick, thin it further with the addition of the pasta cooking water. Pour this mixture over the the pasta, peas and sun-dried tomatoes, gently mixing to incorporate the ricotta/cauliflower mixture.
- Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper. Serve with a garnish of chopped basil and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Makes 6 to 8 servings.
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