Lighter Fettucine Alfredo

Just a little food porn to get your Monday morning off to a good start. A friend and I have started cracking open our cookbooks in an attempt to get back to the fun of cooking and since these happen to be collections of lighter and healthier recipes, it doesn’t hurt the bottom line either. Above is a “Lighter” Fettucine Alfredo from America’s Test Kitchen which cut the usual cals/fat by roughly 40% or so. They use fresh (or store-packaged fresh) pasta, swap out the heavy cream and butter for half & half thickened with cornstarch and reduce the amount of cheese. Unlike many of their lighter recipes, this one wasn’t too involved and didn’t have weird or crazy substitutions, but unlike the more traditional creamier sauce, this doesn’t keep its sauciness very well, so my leftovers will probably need a dash of water or half & half while reheating.

I’m a fan of chicken with the dish, so I sauteed a bone-/skin-less breast to serve atop it. I’m not normally a “one serving” person, but this was plenty satisfying for me and I didn’t have any urge to snack or look for a dessert later. Like other recipes in The Best Light Recipe, it cuts back on the cals, but not if you chow down the whole thing. When living & cooking single, it’s hard to resist going back for another nibble, but I’m looking forward to enjoying this for the next few days and not having to worry about what to make for dinner.