Grown-Up Not Terrible for You Alfredo

It was recently brought to my attention that when I refer to the starchy, delicious complex carbohydrates that most people call pasta, I tend to say "noodle." It's odd that I haven't noticed this in all my years of noodle-eating. In fact, in my head I'm pretty sure I'm saying "pasta"...it just comes out "noodles." The bigger point, though, is that I apparently talk about noodles so much that people have actually started to notice the words I use when describing them. I have a deep, enduring love for noodles. It is a standard in our kitchen...something that my husband Robb and I cook many times a week, and we almost never cook it the same way twice (except buttered noodles and Prego...more on that later, I'm sure). I think it's safe to say that we (thankfully) don't have a gluten problem, and we have enough to say on the topic that we could, in fact, fill a blog.

But why "Sp'noodles?" you might might be wondering. And I ask you, why not Sp'noodles? It's fun to say! It rolls off the tongue! It actually sounds like what it feels like to eat a noodle! (It's really best said with a slight lisp somewhere at the beginning...sthpanoodles!) As legend would have it, the actual term "sp'noodles" was born many years ago by Matt Lesser, karaoke host extraordinaire, who was eating some sort of Asian noodles (whether they were Thai or Chinese is still not settled) when our friend Nicole decided she needed to hunt furiously for her purse, which she thought might be laying on the floor. She bumped the table and the noodles went flying, to which Matt exclaimed "Sp'noodles!" According to legend, he then scooped the noodles up off the floor and ate them anyway.

And that is the spirit of a very good noodle. Even if you spill it, you still want to eat it.

Without further ado, I will share with you a recipe...the first of many that we intend to share on this site. This one is sort of a grown-up alfredo, and I highly suggest using any veggies you have laying around as almost all veggies play nicely with the cream sauce.

Grown-Up Not Terrible for You Alfredo
Round up your veggies and assess the situation. Go ahead and slice and dice your veggies as you see fit (I like my veggies to mimic my noodles, so if I have long noodles, I slice long and thin, and if I have small noodles I go for more of a rough chop.) For this dish, I diced garlic, sliced up some mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, and snow peas, and did a rough chiffonade of spinach and basil. You'll also want to grate about half a cup of mozzarella (or whatever cheese you have laying around).

Get your salted water boiling and cook your noodles (I used elbow).

Put a good glug of olive oil in a saute pan. When the oil in the pan is hot, add the garlic and mushrooms. After those have cooked for about five minutes, add a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of flour and stir it well, until all of the flour has been soaked up--there should be no clumps and it should all start to turn a little golden brown. Pour in about a half cup of milk and keep stirring. Keep the heat a little above medium. Within a few minutes, the milk will start to thicken. At that point, add in your grated mozzarella and stir it all together until the sauce is smooth. Then start dropping in your other veggies, which will only need a few minutes to cook.

Drain the noodles when they are al dente and toss them into the pan with the sauce--don't rinse the noodles and don't add too many noodles at once...you don't want to dilute that creamy goodness by adding too much pasta! Try a noodle. Is it salty enough? If not, add some kosher salt. Top it all off with some grated parmesan and more fresh basil. Done!