Fettuccine Alfredo, Lightened Up
Creamy, cheesy alfredo sauce lightened up? Can it be true? I've been searching for the best ways to make fettuccine alfredo easier on the waistline, and it all comes down to my secret ingredient.
A typical portion of this decadent dish has 1200 calories, 75 grams of fat, 47 grams of saturated fat and gives you more than half a day's worth of sodium. Yikes! Looking at a recipe, it’s not hard to figure out why. The star ingredients are buckets of heavy cream, butter, cheese and mountains of pasta.
When it comes to these creamy, indulgent dishes, it's better to not try to replace ALL of the high-fat ingredients completely. Instead, to keep flavor, you simply use less (much less). A little butter, cream and Parmesan cheese can go a long way.
Simmering a large amount of heavy cream and butter creates a thick and creamy sauce. Since a single cup of cream has more than 800 calories, only use a 1/4 cup of cream and then add in my secret ingredient -- light cream cheese! This swap makes the sauce just as silky and only adds a fraction of the fat and calories. Other options are milk thickened with cornstarch, yogurt, part-skim ricotta cheese or chicken stock.
As for the cheese, you’re in luck. Parmesan cheese is naturally lower in fat than many other cheeses and it has a strong flavor, so you only need a little. A half to 2/3 cup of grated cheese is plenty for a recipe that serves four people (it'll be cheaper, too).
Gigantic servings are where many pasta dishes go wrong. Instead of piles of pasta, serve your fettuccine in single-cup servings along with a lean protein (chicken or shrimp) and some vegetables. Below is my recipe, which I often serve with roasted shrimp and broccoli. The whole meal takes less than 20 minutes to make!
8 ounces fettuccine (use whole-grain versions -- whole-wheat or brown rice pasta -- for extra fiber)
Cook pasta according to package directions, reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add cream; season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Simmer for 2 to 3 minutes as the sauce thickens. Add cream cheese and mix well with a whisk until smooth. Add cooked pasta and grated cheese; toss well to combine. If mixture appears too dry, add small amounts of reserved cooking liquid until the sauce is smooth and pasta is well coated. Serve immediately.
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