Creamy Pesto Fettucine

Phil LOVES pesto and brought a huge tub of it home the other night from the local Italian market. I find sometime you have to use a lot of pesto sauce to really coat the pasta, and for me its a bit over powering, so I started thinking and I came up with this yummy creamy sauce. It also works during the same week as making the Individual Chicken Pot Pies since you use the heavy cream in both recipes.

This dish will serve 4 people and you will probably have some leftover sauce to add on top or keep for another night.

Ingredients:
*1/2 stick of butter
*1 small onion finely chopped
*4 tablespoons minced garlic (use less if you don't like as much garlic as we do)
*2c store bought pesto sauce (or you can make your own)
*1c heavy cream
*1lb refrigerated fettucine
*1/4c of pasta water reserved
*Freshly grated pecorino romano cheese (or parmesan, whatever you like or have)

The Making:
Melt the butter in a saute pan (one that has higher sides) or a medium sized saucepan.

Add the onions and cook over medium heat until almost translucent. Add the garlic and cook one minute more.

Add the pesto and stir to incorporate with the onion and garlic. Add the heavy cream. Bring to a simmer until sauce starts to thicken.

Cook pasta according to package. Drain pasta and add to pan with sauce along with the reserved water. toss to coat and transfer to serving bowl. Grate the cheese on top and serve immediately.

Tips and Talk:
You can use boxed pasta, but I like the flavor and texture of the almost fresh pasta- plus it cooks a whole lot faster. The key to not curdling the cream is to bring the temp up slowly, so add right after the pesto has cooled the onions off. Also the reason for the pasta water is this thins the sauce a bit for better coating, and the starch form the water helps to stick the sauce to the pasta.

Phil loved this version of his pesto, and Miles didn't think it was so bad. I left some pasta plain and added a red sauce we had leftover for him. Serve this with a side salad and some garlic bread and you've got a great meal!