This Creamy Cheese Pasta is made by cooking spiral pasta with ham, grated cheese, all purpose cream, onion, garlic. And Ground pepper, pepper, milk, basil leaves and garnished with parsley. This pasta is coated with scrumptious creamy and cheesy sauce. Best to serve for picky eater kids who want a boost of colour on their meals. Truly appetizing even for adults!..
MY PASTA, MY CHOICE
Pasta is one of the carbohydrate staples next to rice and bread. For us Pinoys, a celebration without spaghetti or a macaroni is not complete. Most pasta are made with flour, which makes it very fulfilling.
There are many types of pasta in the world. One of the defining distinction of a pasta is its shape and size. Most of the famous among them were those usually seen in the grocery — spaghetti, macaroni, lasagna, and linguine. But are you aware of the other kinds of pasta? Let me share some of the most interesting and my top 5 favorite ones with you.
- Farfalle or bow tie pasta – This is a ribbon-shaped pasta. This can be used with a tomato based sauce, a pesto sauce or a creamy one.
- Rigatoni – This pasta is a tubular one. Usually, the tube pasta is filled with the meat and sauce mixture and then baked.
- Ravioli – This pasta is like a pocket-type of pasta. It is square shaped wherein the center is filled with your filling of choice. Its name will depend on the filling. Usual fillings include, spinach, cream, cheese, meat and other veggies.
- Gnocchi – Unlike other pastas, the gnocchi is made with potatoes. They are small and chewy and are perfect with both thin and thick sauces.
- Fusilli – This is a thick, and spiral type of pasta. They can be made into dishes using tomato based sauce, pesto or creamy ones. They can also be used as a dessert pasta like macaroni.
CREAMY CHEESE PASTA
It was summer and my baby nieces and nephews had nothing else to do but to play. This was a bit of a challenge to my sister since her kids are picky eaters. She actually went to visit me just to let me try feeding her kids since I’m the “chef” of the house. Her kids are already starting to go under the average healthy weight for the kids their age. We both went out to get them some vitamins. Luckily, the grocery is situated just beside the pharmacy so we don’t need to walk further.
At first, I was thinking of a chicken and pasta dish for the kids but still thinking on how would they be enticed with it. Then, I saw the fusilli pasta. TARGET LOCKED.
With all the different types of pasta, fusilli really caught my eye when I saw one from the shelf. I had already tried doing groceries in different provinces and fusilli pasta is quite rare! There were only 3 packs left so as soon as I saw the pasta, I immediately grabbed one and started to recall all the ingredients of my personal fave– the creamy cheese pasta. This sauce would really go yum yum with the fusilli pasta.
What I love about fusilli pasta is, of course, it’s unique appearance. Unlike the usual spaghetti and macaroni pasta, fusilli pasta is colored with yellow, orange and green. This is really the best choice since my sister told me that the kids were really bored with the dull colors of their meals.
The shape of the fusilli pasta is also one of its distinct characteristics. It is spiral in shape and is thick. Unlike the smooth spaghetti pasta, the spiral edges of this pasta sorts of tickles the taste buds in your tongue, making you to eat more. These edges also help the pasta to hold more of the sauce. Since I will be making a creamy and cheesy sauce, more sauce will stick to the pasta. Kids like their pasta saucy!
I was really excited in preparing this dish since it was very rare for me to have fusilli pasta in my pantry. When the pasta was served to the kids, they were really having fun with their food. One of them identified the color of each piece of pasta before eating!
If you are having similar problems as my sister, you better try this creamy and cheesy pasta today! Picky eaters will surely pick this dish!
HOW TO MAKE CREAMY CHEESE PASTA
Making a creamy cheesy spiral pasta is super duper easy. If you had tried making any pasta dish in the past, the steps would be almost similar.
Start by preparing the fusilli pasta. Even though it has a different size, shape and thickness with the spaghetti pasta that we know, the way on how to cook it is similar. Follow the packaging instructions when cooking the pasta and have a taste to know if it is al dente already.
The most important part of a pasta dish is the sauce. Basically you will only need to combine all the sauce ingredients in a pan until they come together as one. I added some ham slices in this recipe to have a similar feature with the famous carbonara sauce. Just remember to cook the sauce on low to medium heat only to prevent burning the milk.
Toss the pasta into the sauce until well coated. Serve this to the kids and they will surely love this! Yum!
Creamy Cheese Pasta
4
servingsIngredients
375 grams spiral pasta
2 teaspoons of oil
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/4 cup butter
3 cloves of garlic (minced)
1 small onion (diced)
250 grams of ham
1 can (370 mL) all purpose cream
160 grams cheese (grated)
1/3 cup liquid milk
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1/2 tablespoon basil leaves
Fresh parsley for garnish (optional)
Directions
- Pour some water in a pot. Add some oil and sprinkle some salt. Stir a bit to dissolve the salt. Add the spiral pasta and let it cook using medium heat until al dente. Strain the cooked pasta and set aside.
- Cut the ham into small squares. Set aside.
- For the creamy cheese sauce, melt the butter in a pan. Add the garlic and onions and then saute for a few minutes. Add the diced ham and cook until light brown. Add the all purpose cream and mix well to combine. Add the grated cheese and stir until it melts. Add some liquid milk to thin the sauce a bit. Season with some ground pepper and basil leaves and then stir well.
- Add the cooked pasta to the pan and toss gently until well coated with the sauce.
- Transfer the creamy cheese spiral pasta to a serving plate and garnish with some fresh parsley on top. Enjoy!
Creamy Cheese Pasta
Ingredients:
- 375 grams ng spiral pasta
- 2 kutsarita ng mantika
- 1/2 kutsarita ng asin
- 1/4 tasa ng butter
- 3 butil ng bawang (hiniwa ng maliliit)
- 1 maliit na sibuyas (hiniwa)
- 250 grams ng ham
- 1 lata (370 mL) ng all purpose cream
- 160 grams ng cheese (grated)
- 1/3 tasa ng liquid na gatas
- 1/2 kutsarita ng paminta
- 1/2 kutsara ng basil leaves
- fresh parsley pang garnish (optional)
Paano Gawin:
- Maglagay ng tubig sa isang pot. Lagyan ito ng konting mantika at asin. Haluin para matunaw ang asin. Ilagay ang spiral pasta at lutuin ito gamit ang katamtamang apoy hanggang maging al dente. I-strain ang pasta at isantabi.
- Hiwain ang ham ng maliliit na squares. Isantabi.
- Para sa creamy cheese sauce, tunawin ang butter sa kawali. Ilagay ang sibuyas at bawang at igisa ng ilang minuto. Ilagay ang hiniwang ham at lutuin hanggang maging light brown. Ilagay ang all purpose cream at haluin. Ilagay ang grated cheese at haluin hanggang matunaw. Maglagay ng konting liquid na gatas para lumabnaw ng konti ang sauce. Timplahan ito ng paminta at basil leaves. Haluin.
- Ilagay ang spiral pasta sa kawali at haluin ng dahan dahan hanggang malagyan lahat ng creamy sauce.
- Ilipat ang creamy cheese spiral pasta sa serving plate at budburan ng fresh parsley sa ibabaw. Enjoy!
