Photo Credit: Szlea
Looking for something a little sassier for this weekend’s dinner date? Needing to get a fairly large bang for your gourmet buck? I’ve got just the ticket.
First of all, if you are needing a fun and unexpected shape, Garofalo has plenty to go around. And their calamarata pasta will help you celebrate seafood even if the sauce includes none of it. Here’s a moderate weight cream sauce I invented to use up a few gourmet leftovers, celebrate the flavors of Italy, and commemorate the Mediterranean:
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Start with a basic cream sauce (olive oil, flour, garlic, sea salt and pepper whisked until bubbly and covered with a blend of fat free half and half, skim milk and neufchatel cream cheese) and bring to a light simmer.
- Once the sauce has started to thicken slightly, crumble a two inch block of blue cheese into the liquid and snip 2-3 large sun dried tomatoes into the mix, using kitchen shears to make the small bits go as far as possible.
Serve over al dente calamarata and top with chopped fresh parsley. The blue cheese takes the cream sauce from trite to tasty with just the right bit of tang. With a calamari shaped pasta, blue and red ingredients symbolizing Mediterranean sunsets, and side salad of roquet and other mixed greens, all you need is the wine to start planning your Italian travel adventure tonight. Why wait?
Editor’s note: As we are on the road right now, the lead image is the closest one I could find. If anyone else tries this at home and wants to post an online image of the entree, I would be more than happy to link back to you.