My husband is a carb freak. I’ve known this since way back when I was bossing him around at Blockbuster (hahaha). Then when we started dating. Then when we got married. Then when I was pregnant with our oldest. Etcetera. He consumes more carbs than anyone I know. I mean, if he could eat a loaf of bread (good bread, not like…*gasp* store bought bread) he would. I happen to know for fact that he eats MUCHO carbs on his ship too. It’s a wonder he passes his PFA. All this carb eating has turned his little sidekick (our oldest) into a little carb eater too.

Neither of my kids will happily eat boxed pasta. They are spoiled little foodie brats. I have to make pasta at least once a week. I’ve tried to sneak boxed pasta in on them and they know and refuse to eat it…until I refuse to make anything else and they are ready to gnaw their arms off, then they eat it. But only by force. I have gotten really good at making pasta though, so normally we do not resort to a box. I can make pasta start to finish in about 25 minutes. I have the timing down to a science. I’ve tried a whole bunch of different pastas too. Spinach. Sun Dried tomato. Sage. They are all good, but this is my favorite.

Roasted Garlic Pasta:

2 Cups All-Purpose Flour

1 tsp Salt

2 Whole Eggs

3 Egg Yolks

1 head of garlic, roasted (do this however you choose, I roast mine in the oven…my husband would probably throw it on the grill)

There are several ways to make the dough, food processor, stand mixer or by hand. I’ve done them all, but I prefer to use my kitchen-aid (Note to Kitchenaid users: if you have a standard 325 W mixer, DO NOT use your mixer…you’ll burn the motor out. Trust me. I know firsthand. I don’t want kitchenaid calling me up asking why I pressured my readers to burn out their mixers so…make sure you’re stand mixer has the motor to handle very thick dough (think 500w and up)).

Using the flat beater, throw your flour in mixer bowl (or your preferred method for pasta making). Add Salt. Mix to combine. Add Whole Eggs. Mix to combine. Add egg yolks. Mix to combine. De-Paper your roasted garlic and make a paste out of the cloves.

Yumm…roasted garlic!

Add to flour/egg mixture and turn the mixer on…not too fast, probably a 2 (or mix if you’re mixing by hand). Once dough starts sticking together, switch to the kneader thing (I know…really technical). Knead dough for several minutes until it is smooth. Dough should not be too sticky, but it shouldn’t be too hard either. Somewhere in the middle.

Take out dough and knead a few more times. Make into a ball and flatten slightly to make a disc. Let sit for 20 minutes or so (so all the gluten becomes really good buddies).

Then start rolling. I have a pasta attachment for my Kitchenaid, which has been the best investment ever. I also have a hand crank model. Due to laziness, I’m using the kitchen aid attachment. You don’t NEED one, you can roll the dough out with a rolling pin and get the same effect. I split the ball into 4 equal quarters. And start on the largest setting. Use a bunch of flour. I like to dust my dough each time it goes through the rollers. This might be a little overkill but it works for me.

Once your dough is as thin as you’d like it, slice it, dice it, do whatever. I’m going with Spaghetti for this, because my kids prefer it to Linguine. If you are doing this by hand, just take a knife and cut into long, skinny dough strips.

See? Easy!

Get your water at a rolling boil on your stove and throw in the pasta. Cook for about 90 seconds-2 minutes. It doesn’t take long. Once the pasta starts to float, it’s done. Reserve some of the cooking liquid, drain pasta and toss it into a bowl with the reserved cooking liquid.

Yum…sketti…

I encourage you to also try it as Lasagna noodles. You won’t regret it. No boiling, just roll out the pasta, cut to the shape you need throw it in your dish and bake!

There is no doubt I love cheese. Which leads to my love of cheesy alfredo. Creamy, cheesy alfredo…*daydreams*

Cait’s super duper alfredo:

Here is how I do it:

1 stick butter

2 cloves minced garlic

1 cup Cream

1 cup Whole Milk (WHOLE. MILK. Don’t use dishwater)

2 egg yolks beaten

5 oz Parmesan, grated. (I mean. Buy a brick of parm and grate it, don’t buy already grated, it doesn’t work.)

Salt and pepper to taste. Remember. The cheese is salty to wait until after you add it to add any salt)

That’s it. No joke. To make your own alfredo, that’s all you need! (you can definitely add to it though…)

In a heavy bottom saucepan melt butter.

Add the garlic and stir it up a bit. Add milk and cream and turn heat to medium. Heat until mixture is hotttttt, but not boiling. TEMPER the eggs (goodness, please don’t just throw them in. You’ll end up with some sort of scrambled egg alfredo). Do this by slowly adding about 1/2 cup of the milk mixture into the egg while wisking. THEN add the egg into the milk mixture.

Turn down the heat and stir until mixture thickens slightly (this isn’t a super thick sauce, if you want to thicken it…temper in some flour). Add cheese and stir until all the cheese is melted. Salt and pepper to taste and let simmer for about 10 minutes on low, stirring often.

TA DA! Alfredo! Ohh…it’s sooo good.

Throw some pasta in a bowl, top with Alfredo, top with some extra grated parm (for good measure) and enjoy. This is one of my favorite dishes. The garlic pasta just makes the whole dish.

Now, we should all go to the gym together. I have no idea how many calories that was, but I’m sure it was a lot.