Alfredo Sauce

This is the easiest. And the best.

You can memorize it right now and go get the stuff for it and have the very bestest Alfredo sauce in the world. Preferred use is with Angel Hair pasta.

You need:

1 block of that Philadelphia Cream Cheese, the silver foil package
1 stick of butter
1 of those little cartons of Half-n-Half

That's the base recipe. We'll talk about what else to put in it later.

Now, take a minute to memorize that. It isn't that hard. Three things. One of each. And ferkryin'outloud, do NOT use margarine. That would be a sin. I would have to ban you from the kitchen. Don't make me come over there.

Okay, this is the important part: Instructions.

In a saucepan over LOW heat, cut up the butter and the cream cheese into the bottom and let it start to melt. Cutting them up into little pieces make everything melt significantly faster and more thoroughly.

You HAVE to keep an eye on it. Let everything melt together and note that it will NOT appear to be blending. That's okay. We'll solve that problem next. Be careful it doesn't boil too much. When it's plenty melted and moving well in the pan, go to the next step.

Next step: Take the half-n-half and SLOWLY pour little dabs in at a time. About two tablespoons at a time, give or take. Then stop and stir until it heats up again. You want to pour slowly enough to keep the mix from cooling off too much or too fast. As you keep adding a little at a time, you'll see that everything will start to blend together better and better. If you let it sit, though, it will start to separate again. You'll know you need just a little more half-n-half if that's the case.

Overall, you won't need more than about a cup of the half-n-half. You'll know if you got it right when the leftovers do NOT separate. For now, though, just wing it. I assure you, that if you follow your instincts about what it looks like and how it behaves, you'll be pleased. It will look like a sauce, okay? Okay!

That's it, folks. Sounds too easy, eh? It is and it isn't. Just don't rush it and whatever you do, stay there and work it. You do not want to walk away from the stove with this much fat going! (That's just funny right there!)

Okay, what to do with it. Best thing ever is to put garlic in it. Yup. Season to taste with chopped garlic. Use fresh chopped garlic please and note the above comment about banning you from the kitchen if you DARE to use garlic powder or some dang thing.

At this point, you may wish to put in some minature sauteed scallops or shrimp. Most of the time, we spoon the Alfredo sauce over the angel hair pasta, then add sauteed mushrooms or chicken or shellfish of some kind. Toss a few sun-dried tomatoes on top and you're in for a REALLY nice treat!

I recommend not blending too many things into the Alfredo Sauce base but feel free to experiment. We put the mushrooms in the sauce one time and it made it turn gray. Bleah. It was still very very good, make no mistake but the appearance was unappetizing. You don't want to spoon that onto your guests' plates!

Pour some wine and serve up!

Let me know what you think!

--Wag--