Easy Fettuccine Alfredo

As someone who has Italian roots I can't deny my love for pasta.  Although I do despise rotini, I pretty much love everything else.  Today I thought it would be a good idea to cook a pasta dish that is SUPER easy, but will look very impressive to everyone who eats it!  The ingredients are fairly simple and the only "cooking" that is involved is boiling water and cooking pasta on the stove and a little bit of simmering.  Easy enough right?  And see, you can tell everyone that you know how to "simmer" something and they will be extremely impressed!  So here are the ingredients that you will need to make the alfredo sauce:

1 pint heavy cream

½ stick margarine or butter

4 oz. cream cheese

½-3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

½-1 tsp .garlic powder

Salt and pepper to taste

1-16 oz. box Fettuccine

If you are health conscious or whatever the case and you want the sauce to have less calories then all you have to do is replace the heavy cream with fat free half and half or light cream and instead of regular cream cheese use fat-free or light cream cheese.  Also, with the cream cheese, it is best if you purchase the sticks of cream cheese instead of the tubs for this.  It is just too hard to measure out 4 oz of cream cheese from a tub!

First, in a saucepan, combine margarine, heavy cream, and cream cheese. Simmer on low to low-medium heat slowly until melted and mixed well. Although simmering might sound intense for a newbie, it is actually very easy.  All you want to do is use a lower heat setting and make sure the ingredients have been mixed and melted together.  P.S. Fun Fact: Food that is simmered in milk or cream instead of water is referred to as creamed.  Add parmesan cheese and garlic powder. Simmer on low for 15-20 minutes stirring frequently. This does take a pretty good amount of time, but just grab a beer or a glass of Chianti (Italian wine) and relax.  Cooking doesn't have to be stressful!  Finally, add salt and pepper to taste and serve the sauce over fettuccine.

A good rule of thumb is when you add the parmesan cheese and the garlic powder to your mixture that is being simmered, that is a good time to start boiling the water for your fettuccine.  Cooking pasta is easy.  Simply add about 6 cups of water to a pot and put it on the stove to boil.  You can add a little salt and olive oil to the water if you would like.  Once the water has started to boil, add in the fettuccine.  Just make sure that you stir the noodles in the pot.  After about 6-8 minutes check a noodle to see if it is done.  If you have trouble, you can always check on the pasta box.  It will have instructions as well!