| I cooked the whole head of cauliflower and the frozen peas. They are in the colander waiting for me. The water to boil the farfalle is on the stove. Now I must make the cream sauce. Here's what I'm thinking:
Melt butter in Dutch oven. Add pepper flakes; stir. Add chopped-up tomatoes; saute. Add cream (OK, half and half) and reduce slightly.
Okay, just added the tomatoes to the half-stick of butter and bunch of pepper flakes. I used two smallish winter tomatoes: they weren't VERY ripe -- if you can find tomatoes grown on the vine, that would probably be better. Or decently ripe plum tomatoes: they'd be excellent.
So I'm cooking the tomatoes down, trying to dry up much of the liquid, whisking the whole thing, while my big pot heats up water to cook the pasta in.
Here's the thing: I need to get the veggies out of the colander before the pasta needs to go INTO the colander. Guess I'll have to put them directly into the sauce, once the pasta's cooked.
Okay, glug glug glug in goes the half & half. Now, we reduce that. Even before reduction, it's a pretty pink color, with bits of tomato skin swirling around and getting caught in my whisk. Grind in a bit of fresh black pepper.
Pasta pot still isn't boiling: that's okay, gives me more time to blog. (^.^)
OK, pasta water's ready: in goes farfalle for twelve minutes. Sauce is reducing...the cheese will further thicken it so maybe I should turn off the heat right now.
Or not. Turn down heat on both pots; wait twelve minutes.
Okay, pasta's almost done: cut up cauliflower & dump it & drained peas into sauce so the colander's ready for the pasta.
Realize that you have seriously underestimated the amount of sauce you need and add more half & half, plus some pasta water. Add more half & half.
Drain farfalle; add to veggies & sauce. Toss. Add more cheese. And more cheese. Until the whole sauce thing is about the consistency of Alfredo sauce.
Top with freshly ground black pepper. |
