When some people hear the term "clean eating" they immediately envision wheat grass shots, lots of salads, and boiled chicken breast. I can assure you that my diet looks nothing like that! While this particular dish is a bit rich and not something we eat every day - I could if I wanted to. It's just a matter of making your favorite things with clean versions of the ingredients.
The cheese sauce base is the same as most others. Start with a good grass fed butter and cream base, reduce until it coats the back of a spoon, add your cheese and stir until it becomes a melty and luxurious sauce that you'd eat off a flip flop. Just be sure to use raw milk, goat milk and/or sheep milk cheeses. I like to hunt the weird chunks in the bargain bin at Whole Foods. It gives me a chance to try new cheeses without spending a ton of money. It also allows me to combine different cheeses when making a dish like this, which creates amazing flavor profiles.
Pasta dishes also allow for a mash up of whatever you may have in your fridge/freezer that needs to be used up. For me, it was some fresh spinach and a package of langostino tails that I had defrosted with other plans a few days ago. Throw this all together, and it turned into a resemblance of a lobster Mac and cheese that I was more than happy to eat. If you're keeping it clean, cassava pasta should be a pantry staple. I really love the Jovial brand. You can find it in almost any store, but the type may differ. They can be found on amazon though, like this penne I used for this recipe (https://amzn.to/3QrrKwk)
After making the cheese sauce, we threw in the spinach we sautéed and the langostino tails and warmed it through while the pasta cooked. Once the pasta was ready, we just put it directly into the sauce and stirred to combine. Add a little cracked black pepper on top and buckle up!
Ingredients
8 tbsp butter
1 clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 cup cheese, shredded
2 cups fresh spinach, sautéed
12 oz langostino tails, defrosted
8 oz pasta, cooked
Directions
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
In a large sauté pan, heat the butter over medium heat. Once the butter is melted, add the garlic and stir until it becomes fragrant, about 45 seconds.
Add the cream and continue to cook until it begins to lightly bubble. Lower the heat and simmer gently for about 12 minutes or until the sauce begins to slightly reduce. You should be able to coat the back of a spoon.
While the sauce reduces, sauté the spinach in a pan with a little bit of olive oil and salt. Add pasta to boiling water and cook according to package directions.
Slowly add the shredded cheese to the butter and cream mixture in batches, stirring constantly to avoid clumping.
Stir in the cooked spinach and some salt and pepper to taste. Add langostino tails. Stir to combine.
Once the pasta is cooked, use a slotted spoon to directly transfer the pasta to the sauce. This will allow for a little bit of the pasta water to also get in the sauce, helping to add flavor as well as helping to thicken the sauce.
Serve and enjoy!
Notes
Don't get hung up on the exact add-in ingredients. The sauce and pasta are the constant, but the protein and other additions can be your own. Roasted red peppers, broccoli, or cauliflower would be good in this. Chicken or meatballs would be perfect too. Let's face it - cheese sauce makes EVERYTHING better.
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