Serious Eats: Recipes
Dinner Tonight: Pasta with Broccoli, Goat Cheese, and Oregano
Since Fettucini Alfredo, and probably long before it, most of us have experienced an occasional craving for noodles with creamy sauce. I try to avoid pasta dishes calling for actual cream—even the original "Alfredo" sauce was achieved with starchy pasta water, butter, and cheese before cream became a widespread easy cheat.
This recipe passes the creamy-but-creamless test with flying colors.
Gordon Ramsay's recipes is kind of the goat-cheese spin on Alfredo. It eschews not only cream but also butter, opting instead for the complex funk of goat cheese, which melts and coats the noodles.
For a more balanced meal, a hefty portion of steamed broccoli adds some color and bulk (and if there's ever a reason to eat steamed broccoli, it's when it's covered with a starchy, goat-cheesy coating—it's far better than scary yellow liquid "cheese"). The original recipe calls for a version of broccoli found mostly in Britain called purple-sprouting broccoli; a good substitute might be broccolinior just the regular common broccoli, which I used. Ramsay also makes good use of a lemon (both the zest and the juice), which balances out the dish's richness. It makes for an altogether quick and elegant dinner.
