Farfalle and Mushrooms

Tonight's dinner was supposed to be last night's dinner, but the boys and I started playing Scattergories and I completely forgot all about dinner. Although I've chosen not to make dinner plenty of times, I don't know that I've actually ever forgotten. But we were having fun - missing dinner because you're having fun with your family is definitely not a bad thing.

Farfalle with Creamy Wild Mushroom Sauce

This is one of the recipes in the December issue of Cooking Light that caught my eye. Pasta, mushrooms, cream and cheese - a no-fail combination. This recipe went far beyond no-fail. I almost didn't try it because although it sounded delicious, it seemed so oridinary - something anyone could make up on their own. It ended up being one of those dishes where the sum is greater than the parts. The key is to stick to the ingredient list. If you try to make a low-fat substitution for the cream or try to use a lesser quality Parmesan cheese, you will most likely be disappointed and think this dish nothing special. Had I made it on my own, I probably would have chickened out and skipped the cream, using half & half instead. Seeing cream as an ingredient in Cooking Light, however, made me feel as though I had permission to go all out.

How do they get a recipe with cream and Parmigianno-Regianno to be a low-fat dish (low-fat meaning that about 30% of the calories come from fat)? Lots of pasta. Too much pasta, if you ask me. I ended up adding about 3/4 the amount of pasta the recipe calls for because I could tell that adding the entire pound would result in too little sauce. Less pasta means that the overall percentage of fat ended up being higher than 31%. Personally, I'd rather have a higher fat percentage and a little more flavor.

This dish will likely be come a regular - it's easy, fairly quick, and oh-so-good. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.............