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Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Creamy Cheese & Garlic Pasta

I can't remember where this recipe came from, it's one of those word documents that I cut/pasted some time ago and saved to the computer.

And then never make.

I seem to do that a lot from the count of all the documents in the recipe folder.

So I made this the other night and The Husband loved it. 
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 6 garlic cloves, minced
  • 8 oz spaghetti
  • 1 cup cooked pasta water
  • 1 chicken bullion cube
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 and 1/2 cups of Four-Cheese Italian White Cheese Blend (Mozzarella, White Cheddar, Provolone, Asiago)
  • Salt, pepper, Thyme
  • 1 pound chicken breast tenders, boneless, skinless
Instructions

  1. Heat olive oil and butter on medium heat in a large skillet, add minced garlic and cook for about 1 minute on medium heat, without burning.
  2. Cook pasta in a separate pan, drain. Reserve some of cooked pasta water. Dissolve 1 cube of chicken broth bouillon in 1 cup of hot pasta water.
  3. While pasta is cooking, rub chicken with salt, pepper and Thyme - as much or little as you like - and cook in the skillet with olive oil and about two minced cloves of garlic. Remove from the skillet when done. Drain some of the olive oil (save garlic bits!) if there is a lot left in the pan.
  4. Add pasta water (with the dissolved chicken broth bouillon cube in it), heavy cream, and cooked spaghetti to the skillet with cooked garlic. Bring to boil, stirring. Once the liquids are boiling, immediately add cheese and keep stirring everything together (spaghetti and the cream), while boiling, until cheese melts and coats pasta, for about 1 minute. Reduce to simmer and continue to cook, constantly stirring, to thicken the sauce - for another minute or two.
  5. Serve topped with the chicken strips/tenders.