It Was Just a Quick Fettuccine Alfredo, Really it Was!

January 5, 2010

In this post I’ll tell you how farfalle with bacon, peas and sage was a super quick mock carbonara. Even my pea haters loved it.

So Tired

Okay so last night I was so exhausted from all the New Years festivities when I got home from work, I went to take a nap. I don’t know what was wrong with me I seriously thought I was going to die. My husband came in and woke me up and advised me that it would be a bad idea to take a very long nap and told me that he had run out and picked up some dinner. I asked him what he had picked up and it was Jack in the Box. Ugh! After the trip to and from Las Vegas I was pretty sick of fast food, and the burger he brought me was dried out and disgusting. I wasn’t very upset with him because honestly he was just trying to be a nice guy because I was so tired. I did however express my exhaustion of take out and told him that the next night I was going to cook if it killed me.

Fettuccine Alfredo?

When he picked me up from work I had decided we’d just take a quick stop at the market and I’d get some cream and we’d make some alfredo, because I had done a delicious sauce at my brothers with the left over cream from my pork tenderloin from my first dinner. He agreed, seeing how alfredo is one of his favorite dishes. Of course you know I had GR’s book with me. What good stalker doesn’t carry her book around with her right? I’m just kidding, I’d never stalk anyone but I do carry the book in case I get a whim.

No, Farfalle with Bacon, Peas and Sage is BETTER!

Well guess what dear readers? I had a whim! I seemed to remember a dish called farfalle with bacon, peas and sage. I opened the book and discovered a dish that seemed to be as low key and easy as the alfredo would be. A few more ingredients but what the heck right? I actually had to go to two stores because the market i was at didn’t have fresh sage, or a wedge of Parmesan. So I went to another market and got my remaining ingredients along with a bottle of white wine and some shrimp for a compliment to the pasta dish. I had commented to my husband that I’d be cranky if I got home and the kitchen was a mess and he assured me that it wouldn’t be because he had done it in the morning. ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Let the Mock Carbonara Begin!

Okay so after we quick cleaned up the few things that were out, here I was again chopping and slicing and being as professional as I could be by having all my ingredients prepped and ready to throw in at just the precise time. My first surprise was reading to cook the bacon in olive oil. WOT? Bacon? In olive oil? Isn’t it fatty enough? Well Gordon Ramsay hardly looks fat and after all he is the master right? *PLOP* As the bacon began to sizzle my house began to fill with the yummy smell of frying pork, if I had to imagine a kitchen in heaven this is what it would smell like. Anyway the dish was coming together quite nicely and to my amazement very easily too. My eldest child came in and was sniffing around and said “you know I can only have 1,200 calories a day and I think smelling this yummy goodness just took 5 of them!

Okay sauce simmering, i then took the shrimp that I had drizzed with olive oil and sprinkled with some fresh dill weed and placed the skewers strategically on the grill as to not over cook them by needing to over crowd them, we were almost ready to eat.

A Gourmet Meal is Just That Easy

Right, pasta done (Barilla pasta is my favorite)… toss in the yummy sauce as GR describes as an easy version of pasta carbonara and plate! Pour the wine, add a couple of shrimp skewers and VOILA! Gourmet meal! A KEEPER according to my son who was snarfing down the food faster than a gerbil on a running wheel. I kid you not dear readers including prep time this meal took 35 minutes from bag to to plate. Thank you GR from a very tired me!

Personal observation: You don’t need a lot of time to eat well.

Watch this video for another easy Gordon Ramsay bow tie pasta dish!

Okay so here it was the day after NYE. January 1, 2010… Today was the day, the day I would start my one project that I would actually finish!  From Las Vegas Nevada baby!

Fortunately for me I had purchased almost everything I needed for this culinary delight before the NYE party, because I’m sure in my state I would have bought cotton balls instead of mushrooms if I had gone shopping after that party my brother threw.

So even though I was hung over from hell and back I decided that I would forge forth and start my first attempt at one of my idol’s dishes. In my normal fashion I went for broke right away of course!  Conger eel HAHAHAHA NO!  I picked one of the dishes that I thought I could easily pull off with as little crying as possible.

We invited some of my brothers friends over and the first one to arrive was Sarah (real names are hidden to protect those who may not want to be blogged about)  She asked me about my project and I promptly opened up my laptop to let her read about what she was about to innocently expose her palette to.  I heard a few giggles and then she got quiet and I turned around and that’s when she looked at me like a deer in the headlights and said

“you’re not cooking eel are you?”  I couldn’t help but laugh so much it made my poor aching head hurt even more. No I told her, that I’d never expose anyone to something like that without full knowledge that it would be okay, and since I am still uncertain of this eel thing myself  I wouldn’t do that.  The dish I had chosen this night was a pork tenderloin stroganoff.  Pork in my opinion is a relatively hard meat to ruin, well of course you can become so paranoid of under cooking pork that you dry it out to a shoe leather like substance, however I’ve never encountered anyone who could royally f*ck up a tender loin.

I had decided that if I was going to do this I would do it in a professional manner and prepped everything before hand, all the slicing dicing etc.  I think the key ingredient in this meal was the smoked paprika, I tossed the meat in this along with the other things and set it aside while i finished preparing the other items for this dish.  I was really amazed at how much fun I had putting all this together because normally I hate being my own sous chef, but as I sat cutting and mixing and putting bowls of things together.. I could smell the ingredients coming together and it was a pure delight, I could really see why there is a cook book out there called “the joy of cooking”

Now it was time to cook… heat the olive oil…. put in the pork…. *SIZZLE* the kitchen filled up with the most delicious smell I think I had ever experienced, people came in and asked if it was ready!  Serious, that was just the meat.  The rest I won’t say simply because I wouldn’t divulge a recipe from a book as the last thing I would ever want is to hear from Gordon Ramsay…. through his legal team.  You’ll just have to come for dinner!

Dinner was served with olive oil and garlic fresh fettuccine and peas. Rave reviews for the meal all around.

Personal observation: Since I made the dish a little larger than called for I should have used a bit more cream for a more fluid sauce and looking at the picture a personal note to self to not use canned peas in any thing I plan on taking pictures of.  Though having said that, I do love canned peas… so shoot me.