Pasta from Barefoot Contessa

Whew, we made it through our week. Didn't get a lot of cooking done and what cooking we did was quite simple (like our favorite Easy Layered Rice and Beans), but we only resorted to fast food one night, I think. Not bad for a crazy week.

Lately I have been intrigued by lemon pasta dishes, especially this one from Giada. I was all set to make it until I stumbled on a recipe from Barefoot Contessa that not only had lemon and cream, but also arugula and cherry tomatoes. Not only did that sound like a fabulous taste combination, but I knew it would be a pretty dish too.

Lemon Fusilli with Arugula

It was pretty, but certainly NOT low fat. I rarely make anything using more than just a little bit of heavy cream, but I decided to go for it this time. Recipes like this that use so few ingredients tend to rely on using the most flavorful ingredients possible. I was afraid that using half and half or an even lower fat milk product would really cause the flavor to suffer. Now that I've tasted it, I'm not so sure. It was delicious, but the cream flavor did not come through as much as I anticipated. The cream did, however, make a lovely, thick sauce. I think with a little tweaking, this recipe could easily be made lower fat and just as delicious. I definitely plan to tinker with this one and various incarnations.

This was a delicious dish - pasta coated in a thick lemon cream sauce with peppery bites of arugula and bursts of sweet cherry tomatoes - that goes together with very little fuss. Now I have to decide if I'm going to run the nutritional information through Mastercook or just remain blissfully ignorant..................