4 Cheese Pasta

While I love Pasta Carbonara and Pasta Alfredo there is one more way to do a wonderful pasta dish that has lots of cheese and velvety heavy cream. In Italy dishes made this way are often called - Salsa ai Quattro Formaggi.

Last evening Tom and I visited Jeff and Heather for dinner. Heather is due to deliver her baby in one month and she was craving Pasta Carbonara. However, Carbonara is made with egg yolks and that she cannot have right now.

After talking with Heather on her cravings, I realized she wanted a bowl of pasta with an ultra creamy texture.

This recipe nails that.

I made this pasta for Heather last night and she was so soothed by it - I just had to post it today.

Quick Tip - I love a bit of color in my pasta dishes and often I will use chopped basil or chopped parsley to finish. However, baby pea's or small heads of broccoli is very nice too.

Ingredients

16 oz of Pappardelle pasta by Colvavita

or 1 box of Linguine Fini by Barilla

2 Tbsp Butter

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

2 garlic cloves - minced

1 shallot - finely chopped

2 Tbsp Whipped Cream Cheese

2/3 cup heavy cream

1 cup pasta water

1 8 oz bag of Kraft Italian Cheese Blend - Mozzarella, Provolone, Romano, Asiago and Parmesan Cheese.

Salt

Fresh Cracked Black Pepper

Directions

Boil your pasta in heavily salted water according to the package directions.

In a large skillet or wok, add your olive oil and butter and heat gently on medium low heat then add your shallots and garlic. Saute for 2-3 minutes.

When the pasta has one minute left to finish - add your cream cheese and heavy cream into the skillet and whisk until incorporated. Allow the cream to come to a gentle boil for one minute then reduce heat to simmer.

Before draining your pasta reserve 1 cup of the pasta water.

When drained add your pasta immediately into the skillet along with the reserved

pasta water.

Stir well to mix.

Keep your heat on medium then add your bag of Italian Cheeses.

Mix well and allow the pasta to a simmer for 2-3 minutes.

Finish with lots of black pepper.

Optional - add for topping steamed broccoli or baby peas, or chopped parsley.

ENJOY!