Recipe corner - Three cheese pasta

Yet again, my photo makes this incredibly tasty dish look pale and anything but interesting. You'll just have to take my word that this delivers on flavour.



I was trying to recreate a meal my Mum used to cook when I was younger; I believe her recipe came from an Antonio Carluccio book, and I'm pretty sure that he did not recommend Philadelphia Light as an essential ingredient in Italian cooking. More likely it was marscapone that was used as the creamy base - and if you fancied trying that then I am sure it would be absolutely wonderful.  Certainly, three cheese pasta was regarded as a special treat in our household - something to be eaten off our knees on a Saturday night in front of Gladiators and Noel's House Party.

Still, I was pleased with how my slightly lighter version turned out. It's tasty, rich and very quick to cook. In terms of points, at 15 it will count for about half a day's allowance - but for a pasta loving cheese monster like me, that's not too great a hardship.

Ingredients

140g dried pasta
Tsp butter
65g pancetta, cubed
1 fat garlic clove, peeled
25ml white wine
Nutmeg
60g low fat cream cheese
30g strong blue cheese
20g Parmesan

Serves 2, 15 pro points per portion

Put a pan of heavily salted water on to boil and have your pasta weighed out and ready to go.

While you're waiting, prepare your other ingredients: in a bowl weight out your cream cheese, blue cheese and half the Parmesan. Season this heavily with black pepper and a good grind of nutmeg.

Using the back of a knife, or the heel of your palm, squish the peeled garlic.

With the pasta on to cook, put the butter into a large pan and melt over a medium high heat. Add the pancetta and garlic and fry until the meat is golden brown.

Tip in the white wine and let it fiercely bubble down to almost nothing.

Now turn your heat down low and throw in your cheese. Slowly allow them to melt into a gooey mass.

When the pasta is ready reserve a couple of ladles of cooking water - this will transfer your goo into a clinging sauce. Drain the pasta and add to the cheese pan, stirring well and splashing in enough water to allow the sauce to lightly coat the pasta.

Serve, sprinkled with the remaining Parmesan.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone