Create-A-Pasta !!

As a lot of you probably already know- I love pasta. I could eat it daily , and be perfectly ok with that ! As we were eating dinner last night (yep, it was pasta), I had a thought for todays post. I used to love eating at Romano's Macaroni Grill, before they closed the one in our area. One of my favorite things there was the "build your own pasta" - i loved the idea of personalizing my pasta. And today, I'm gonna help you to personalize YOUR pasta! Choose from the following :

Pick a Pasta: Ziti, Rigatoni, Bowtie (my personal fave!), Elbow Macaroni, Fettucine, Linguine, Angel Hair

Pick a sauce: ** Garlic Alfredo- you'll need: half a brick of cream cheese (cubed), 1 cup milk, 1/3 cup grated Parmesan Cheese, 1/2 stick butter, 1/2 tsp. garlic powder.

Combine all of these ingredients in a saucepan on medium heat. Stir until cream cheese is melted & mixture is well blended. Add to hot pasta  ;-)

** Cheddar Cheese Sauce-  you'll need: 3 tbsp. butter, 3 tbsp. flour, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/8 tsp. white pepper (black pepper is ok to use if you can't find white), 1 1/2 cups milk, 1 cup grated Cheddar cheese.

Melt butter, remove from heat. Stir in the flour & seasonings. Gradually add milk, stirring until well mixed. Cook over low heat , stirring constantly until thick & smooth. Cook for 5 minutes longer then add cheese. Stir until smooth & well blended. Serve over pasta ;-)

** Marinara Sauce- you'll need : 1 (28 oz.) can crushed tomatoes
1 sm. onion( diced), 2-3 cloves garlic, 1 tbsp. fresh parsley (or dry), 2 tbsp. olive oil, 6-8 leaves fresh basil (or dry), Salt and pepper to taste.

Lightly saute onions and garlic in oil. Add tomatoes, parsley, salt, and pepper. Simmer about 5 minutes; add basil. Add to pasta!

Now the fun stuff- Toppings !!

Choose your toppings-veggies: mushrooms, olives (black or green), broccoli, carrots, califlower, onions.

  meats: chicken, sausage, ground beef.

seafood : shrimp, clams, crabmeat, mussels, scallops

Ta-dah! Now have fun & make your own designer pasta ;-)

** tip- when doing veggies, add them to your pasta boiling water for the last 3 minutes of the cooking time- then drain. Makes veggies tender !

** cook pasta according to package directions

Enjoy !!!!