One of my favourite cook books came from my good friend Corrie.  She and I have spent many a time over the years sharing good wine and food.  The feasts we’ve had!  For our wedding she bought us the “Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking” by Marchella Hazan.  There are some wonderful recipes in this book and a great one is cream and butter sauce.  Also known as Alfredo sauce.  I usually make this with our Homemade Pasta.

However it was a crazy day so I used mushroom ravioli instead.  🙂

I did deviate from the recipe in the book a little so here is my version:

1 cup heavy cream

2T of butter

1 cup freshly grated parmigian-reggia

Pepper to taste.  (her recipe calls for salt.  I love salt but I find that the cheese adds plenty of saltiness as a good base.  I usually add a bit of salt at the table.)

A few shakes of ground nutmeg ( her recipe calls for whole nutmeg to be freshly ground)

Melt the butter in a small pan and add the cream. Heat slowly and stir with a whisk frequently.  Do not whisk so hard it becomes thick.  This is not a thick sauce but a lovely creamy sauce that coats the pasta.

While the sauce is warming up I saute mushrooms and garlic.  This time we had bacon left over from the Bacon Crostini  so I used a bit of that.  As the bacon starts to crisp up I add a bit of white balsamic vinegar to deglaze the pan.

I add the cheese to the heated cream and butter and stir thoroughly as it melts.  I then add the pepper and nutmeg.  Adjust the seasoning as needed.  At this time the pasta is cooking.  Just as the pasta is done I add the sauce to the mushroom mixture and then the pasta.  Toss and serve.

Grate some fresh cheese and enjoy!  This is an uncomplicated dish that takes less than 30 minutes to make if you aren’t making fresh pasta and the flavours are amazing.