My family loves Italian food. In fact, our birthday celebration of choice happens every year at Avanti–the best Italian restaurant in Phoenix, in my humble opinion. They have a 3 way pasta combination that is ridiculous. There is always a set 3 things on it, but they always let us modify it and order it however we want. My pasta plate of choice: gnocchi cardinale, angel hair fried diablo, and of course fettuccine alfredo. Their alfredo sauce is thick, creamy and buttery. It sticks to the fettuccine perfectly so in every bite you get maximum sauce, and a little bit of heaven.
There are some things I just don’t eat these days, regardless of the occasion. And I’m not saying you shouldn’t. I’m just saying, for me, it doesn’t seem worth it. But you know what does seem worth it? Recreating my own that is just as delicious (seriously!) with a fraction of the calories.
Okay, seriously. I did not expect my first go at this to be a success. I kept tasting the sauce as I was cooking and shouting to Steve “Oh my gosh!!! It tastes like alfredo sauce!!!!!”
“Isn’t that the point?” He didn’t seem to get my amazement that it actually worked. I made legit tasting fettuccine alfredo. My days of drooling over creamy alfredo sauce are back my friends and they don’t leave me feeling the gross heaviness in my stomach!
Also, did I mention it’s gluten free? Carolyn, wanna come over for dinner?
Skinnified “Fettuccine” Alfredo’
yield 4 servings
- 1 large spaghetti squash, split lengthwise and seeded
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 3-4 large cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2-1 tbs light whipped butter
- 8 oz reduced fat cream cheese
- 3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
- 1/3 cup white wine (optional, otherwise sub more almond milk)
- 1/3 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
- salt & pepper to taste
- fresh parsley for garnish (optional)
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 400. Drizzle the center of each half of split and seeded spaghetti squash with 1 tsp olive oil. Using your fingers, rub oil evenly into squash. Season with salt and pepper.
- Place spaghetti squash in a large baking dish center down, and bake for 1 hour.
- About 40 minutes into baking, begin your sauce. Place minced garlic and butter in a large pan with fairly high edges over medium heat. Cook for 3 minutes until garlic is fragrant. Add cream cheese, milk, wine, and parmesan cheese. Using a whisk, stir constantly. Add salt and pepper.
- When spaghetti squash is finished (center should be tender and come apart when scraped lightly with a fork), use a fork to scrape out the insides. They will come out looking just like spaghetti.
- Make sure all sauce ingredients are thoroughly combined, and transfer the squash “noodles” to your sauce. Use cooking tongs to toss and coat squash thoroughly.
- When thoroughly combined, serve and top with fresh parsley.
Yum! I love making spaghetti squash based pasta. The sauce sounds good too. Just last week I tried making zucchini pasta and I might say it’s even better than spaghetti squash… you’ll have to try it some time!
I’ve been wanting to try using zucchini! Now I will definitely have to give it a shot 🙂
I tried it once using the “use a peeler and it makes thick flat noodles” method.. which was only ok. But I just tried the other day using my new spiralizer and they were amazing! Even my veggie-hating boyfriend kept trying to steal my bowl from me. I think that’s actually what we’re planning on having for dinner tonight.
Spiralizer?!?!?! Where do you get one of those??? What does it look like? I’ve never heard of it, and you have me totally intrigued!
I got it using a Groupon actually… I don’t remember what brand it is… but I have a picture here on this post: http://333mileswithlove.blogspot.com/2012/04/healthy-curly-fries.html
I have been using it on everything lately… cucumbers, turnips, zucchini, carrots…. basically any vegetable that wants to turn curly for me (I think there is also a slicer option… but I’ve yet to use it. Curls are more fun!)
Delicious!! I love that we both have very similar alfredo recipes 🙂
Great minds 🙂
This is looks great. The only time I’ve had spaghetti squash is at Ruby Tuesday; I liked it, and it intrigued me. My mom is picky and not brave when it comes to trying to new healthy foods…and she’s diabetic, so I’d REALLY like for her to like eating something better for her than noodles. She loves alfredo so I thought this would be a perfect recipe to introduce her to spaghetti squash. The only thing I’m worried about is the almond milk. I’ve never tasted it, much less cooked with it. I’m open to trying it, but don’t want to buy a whole container of it, and only use a small amount…there’s no telling when I’d use it again. Is there something you could use in its place such as half & half or skim milk…something more common?
You could easily use skim, or whatever type you like. I love almond milk because it’s thick and creamy, but only had half the calories of skim milk. If you haven’t tried it, it’s definitely worth a shot! In the meantime, however, just use whatever you’ve got in the fridge 🙂
How many calories in this meal??
Oh yum! I will be trying this! I’m sure the rest of the fam will want regular pasta, but I’ll be having my trusty old spaghetti squash because I’m with you that super full icky feeling just ain’t worth it! I also may have to add some shrimp.
I think you might be surprised with the rest of your family! I’ve made this for a number of unhealthy eaters (including my teenage brother) and with NO complaints! Pasta really is all about the sauce (and in this case the CHEESE)–I swear they’ll never miss it!
I have never met you before. Since reading the alfredo and lasagne recipes, we are now family. And by that i mean, when can I come over and eat this? I’m really excited to try them all. PS Thanks Cousin Ari.