Pasta Sauce

One of my favorite things to eat is pasta.  It is easy and versatile.  There are hundreds of pasta and sauce combinations to ensure that I'll never get bored.  It is often filling when made as a main dish, and goes well with salad and bread.  There are a variety of pasta sauces available in the jar like spaghetti sauce, marinara, or cheese.   While some are good, there is nothing like freshly made pasta sauce. 

A simple recipe for alfredo sauce begins with the basic white sauce or bechamel sauce recipe I learned a long time ago.

Ingredients are:
2 tsp butter
2 tsp flour
1 cup milk (or cream)

Add butter and flour to a saucepan. Blend together on medium heat until light brown and bubbly. Slowly add the milk to the mixture and whisk or stir until it returns to a boil.  Remove from heat and sauce will thicken upon standing.  Season to taste.




This is the foundation recipe for other sauces.  To turn this into alfredo sauce add about 1 cup of parmesan cheese.  To turn this into an herb sauce add you favorite herbs.  To make a cheese sauce just add your favorite cheese.   Sometimes I don't have the time to make a fresh spaghetti sauce so I am known to use it out of the jar.  To give jar sauces a fresher taste I usually add a fresh ingredient.  For spaghetti sauces I add a fresh diced tomato and for alfredo sauce, fresh cheese and a little milk.  This works well with a lot of jarred sauces.  Let me know how your pasta comes out!