Creamy Spinach Fettuccine with mushrooms- a healthy twist to satiate my unhealthy food craving

My family thinks I am a big foodie because I simply love good food. And given an option, I love to experiment with different cuisines and also try out new restaurants. However I must confess that my stomach is not as fond of restaurant food as I am. I have a rather weak digestive system and a less enthusiastic stomach which makes me fall prey to illness if I eat out too often.

And during these nine months one can never be too careful because you have to take care of that lil one too. Hence my quest for some yummy recipes so that I can churn out healthy yet delicious meals for myself to satiate my cravings. 

I had been craving pasta in white sauce for a bit but i wasn't too keen to eat out (given the rains & high probability to fall ill this season). When all else fails one turns to Google these days & it sure did answer my prayers.

Stumbled upon this yummy, sort of healthy (can’t be totally healthy with all that cheese & cream) recipe for white sauce pasta with spinach. 

Here is the link

http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/2011/07/15/creamy-spinach-pasta/

What I really like about Manjula's blog is the easy to understand recipes cooked with easy to find ingredients. They have also shared a video link for the recipe on the blog which is quite helpful. I did make a few small tweaks to the recipe given. So here is the recipe with my tweaks

Ingredients:

For Pasta

6 0z fettuccine pasta approx. 2 cups uncooked pasta (I used fettuccine, you may use any pasta you like such as penne, fusili. This is a personal preference)

1 tablespoon oil

1 teaspoon salt

For Sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons all purpose flour (plain flour, maida)

1 teaspoon Italian herb mix (one can also use the oregano sachet you get with Domino's Pizza, i think it adds a great flavour to any pasta)

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

½ teaspoon red chili flakes adjust to taste

1 cup heavy cream (I used Amul fresh cream)

1 cup milk (you may vary the quantity of milk depending upon how thick you want the sauce to be)

¼ cup Parmesan cheese (In case you dont have parmesan, you may also use a grated amul cheese cube instead)

½ teaspoon salt

6 0z chopped spinach without stem about 2 cups

In addition to spinach, I also used thinly sliced button mushrooms (4-5)

Chopped garlic (3 pods)

Method

Bring a large pot of water to boil, add salt and oil   After water boils add the pasta.

Cook the pasta until it is tender. Here I suggest you stick to the time & instructions mentioned on the pasta pack. For instance the fettuccine required only 5 minutes of cooking time to get it to al dente. If you over boil it, it becomes soggy and that ruins the dish. Drain the water and set pasta aside.

Heat the oil over medium heat and add the garlic (don't cook it too much) & then quickly add add all-purpose flour, then stir for a minute. Add Italian herb mix, black pepper, and chili flakes, and stir for another minute.

While stirring slowly add milk making sure there are no lumps. After it comes to a boil, add cream then bring it to a boil again.

Add spinach, mix it well and let it cook for 2-3 minutes stirring continuously, then turn off the heat (if you think the sauce is too thick, you may add some milk to lighten the consistency). Add cheese and stir.

In a separate pan saute the thinly sliced mushrooms lightly with some olive oil and added the same to the sauce.

Pour the sauce over pasta and toss. You may use a few mushrooms to garnish the dish

I would like to believe that this is sort of healthy since it has mushrooms & spinach along with the cream and cheese :)

My attempt at the Creamy Spinach Pasta with Mushrooms 

So the creamy spinach fettuccine allowed me to indulge in some semi healthy yet delicious food all in the comfort of my home. In the next post, I'll share the recipe of the yummy dessert I prepared for myself.