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20130326

Secret CHEESE Sauce


Okay, stop the begging.

I’ll reveal to you my secret recipe for cheese sauce. No it’s not that gaggy, red-orange stuff that is squirted on your hamburger at the Grease Chain Restaurant.

I use a Parmesan/Alfredo cheese sauce as a base.

Here’s a basic Parmesan Sauce recipe:

1 1/2 tablespoon Butter
2 tablespoon All purpose flour
1 cup milk
1/2 cup Parmesan; freshly shredded
1/4 teaspoo nSalt
1/4 teaspoon Pepper
1 pinch Paprika

Parmesan Cheese Sauce Preparation

1. Melt 1 1/2 Tbsp. butter in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle 2 Tbsp. flour into melted butter, whisking constantly. Cook, whisking constantly, 30 seconds to 1 minute or until mixture is golden and lumpy.

2. Gradually whisk in 1 cup 1% low-fat milk, and bring to a boil. Cook, whisking constantly, 1 to 2 minutes, or until thickened.

3. Add 1/2 cup freshly shredded Parmesan cheese, 1/4 tsp. each salt and pepper, and a pinch of paprika, whisking until smooth. Remove from heat and use immediately.

Or this one is a bit simpler:
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, cubed
3/4 c. milk
1/2 c. (2 oz.) grated Parmesan cheese
Dash of pepper

Microwave cream cheese, milk and Parmesan cheese in 1 quart measure. Microwave on medium (50%) 6 to 8 minutes or until sauce is smooth, stirring every 2 minutes. Stir in pepper. Toss with hot cooked pasta, 1 1/2 cups.

You can make your own if you want but I just skip to a pre-packaged one. It’s hard to beat Classico Creamy Alfredo, but Classico Four Cheese sauce works fine for me also. There are other brands of Italian cheese sauces on the shelf but read the labels carefully, many are made with sugar (high fructose corn syrup, dehydrated beet juice solids, or whatever they are calling sugar that day. Or worse still, maltodextrin.)

NOW, the secret part.

For enough cheese sauce for two servings of pasta, dump a cup of your creamy cheese sauce in a microwave pan.

Add a couple large tablespoons of small curd cottage cheese.

Finely chop about three broccoli florets. Finely. It must look about like coarse pepper. Add to pan.

Next add one teaspoon of tarragon.

Stir this until evenly distributed.

Microwave on high for about 5 minutes or until the cottage cheese is all melted, stirring occasionally. Sauce may brown slightly at the edges. That’s okay. Just stir it in.

You’re done.

Toss with pasta or just ladle on top. Looks good either way.

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