If you’re craving carbs, then a quick pasta fix may be just what you need – and an ‘Alfredo’ is an easy, tasty and entirely satisfying dish. Recipes abound on the internet with various ways to prepare this simple yet delicious dish. Some call for heavy cream, others for half-and-half and yet some others suggest plain milk for the base of the sauce.

An important ingredient in this sauce is the cheese, and there are versions that include Parmesan, cream cheese and mozzarella. Most of the recipes I read used only two cloves of garlic. For consumers in a country that uses garlic in its curries, two cloves will do nothing for flavour. After scanning widely for a relatively less calorie dense recipe, I resolved to use one involving milk rather than double cream or half-and-half.

I then stumbled upon a post, which claimed that authentic Alfredo sauces don’t contain any dairy other than cheese! By ‘authentic’ it refers to the Alfredo sauces made in Italy – though of course, this kind of generalisation should be taken with a grain of salt.

But if you’re looking for a somewhat less calorie dense Alfredo sauce, perhaps the authentic version modified with tons of roasted garlic may be for you.

ROASTED GARLIC ALFREDO PASTA

INGREDIENTS

340g ___ fettuccine or any other pasta of your choice
1 ___ medium-size onion
1-2 cups ___ sliced mushrooms
500g ___ boneless chicken

ALFREDO SAUCE

1-2 ___ pods of garlic
1 cup ___ Parmesan (finely grated, plus more for serving)
¼ cup ___ butter salt
2 cups ___ pasta water (reserved)

RECIPE

Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling water until it is al dente. Drain the pasta but reserve two cups of pasta water.

To roast the garlic pods, add a few drops of oil to each pod and pop them in an oven for about 15 minutes at 180ºC or until you begin to see charred bits. Simply remove each pod from the garlic peels by squeezing at the tip of each clove. Smash the roasted garlic cloves and keep these aside.

Cube the butter and grate the Parmesan cheese – and keep them at the ready.

Prepare the sauce by pouring a cup of the pasta water into a large heavy bottomed pan and bring it to a gentle simmer. Using a whisk, add the butter a cube at a time and whisk until all of it has melted. Continue to whisk and gradually add the cheese while making sure each addition is completely melted before incorporating more. Then add the roasted garlic paste to the mix.

At this point, you can toss the pasta in the sauce and add more of the pasta water as needed – so that the pasta is completely covered by the sauce. Serve it dressed with black pepper and grated Parmesan cheese. If you wish to make the dish more

wholesome, sauté the mushrooms with the onion in some oil while the pasta is boiling. Add the sautéed mushrooms to the sauce along with the pasta.

It’s also possible to add chicken or other protein such as shrimp into the sauce along with the mushrooms if needed. Simply marinate the boneless chicken with a marinade of your choice. Grill and cut it into strips that can be added to the sauce or serve whole over the pasta.