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Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Creamy Pea Pasta

Creamy Pea Pasta has become one of my go to recipes. Quick lunches, easy dinners, and easy to change up. I know I make this atleast once a week, most of the time just so I can have three or four lunches prepacked and ready to grab. Steve? Yea, he's not so keen on it though he does't complain if I add some meat to his portion.

The beauty of this recipe is that its a basic cheese pasta. You can add onions and garlic and spinach and bake it in the oven for extra pizzazz or just leave it as it is for a macaroni and cheese style dish. My favorite way is with the Peas ofcourse. I love that burst of sweet green flavor and it gets that serving of veggies in!

*Pic of basic pasta without peas*

Creamy Pea Pasta
Ingredients:

1/2 box of spaghetti noodles (or one small package)
1/4 cup flour
1/2 stick of butter
2 cups green peas (frozen but thawed)
1/4 cup fresh grated parmesian
1/8 cup gruyere grated
1/2 cup cheddar grated
and I love throwing in one or two small cubes (about 3 tbs) of Velveeta for the cream factor.
2 1/4 cups milk

Directions:
Boil noodles in heavily salted water till tender.

Melt butter in sauce pan. (add onions and garlic if doing so here and cook for a minute or two). Add flour and whisk until smooth. Pour in milk slowly and stir until smooth. When milk mixture is thick enough to coat spoon, turn off heat and add cheeses. Stir until well blended. Toss in peas (and spinach or whatever else you are using at this point) into cheese mixture. Toss mixture with noodles. Serve warm.

Simple, quick and delicious! Dress it up by throwing it in gratin dishes and sprinkly with bread crumbs and baking with a side of garlic bread and fresh salad or keep it simple for weekly lunches. YUM!
*Picture with Peas and Thawed Chopped Spinach*

1 comment:

Sharlene T. said...

Okay, that's just plain good. Gonna fix that for my own lunch tomorrow. Then, I'm going to try it with chard, my absolute favorite green. Thanks, so much, for sharing.