Carb Reload Pasta With Garlic Cream Sauce

I am working out, again. This time, I joined an I'm-not-scared-of-the-showers gym and hired a trainer (yeah I said it) to put the fear of disappointment and pain in me. She was there the other day when I went for a piddly little 30 minutes of manual level 5 cardio. She followed me to my machine and set me up on a level 9 hill workout and then stood there and talked to me for ten minutes to make sure I was doing it. This was not a regular training session, this was just running into her.

How does this intersect with a post on a food blog? On a normal night in the days before working out, I might come up with some fun recipe at lunch, stop by the store on my way home, enter the kitchen with a glass of wine, and embark on a leisurely and privileged jaunt through food exploration ending with what might pass my bar for a blog-worthy post.

That was one big-ass bowl of pasta.

Tonight, I ran into my trainer again, resulting in another unexpected intense blast of cardio. On the way home, I thought, "If I can't make the biggest bowl of pasta right now I'm going to In-N-Out." In other words, I was starving. So, just like college days, I got home, dropped the backpack on the stairs and put a pot of water to boil. These were the ingredients I found. Yes, this was all I ate for dinner, and yes, this is the way blog posts are going to be for a while.

Carb Reload Pasta With Garlic Cream Sauce

Serves: One hungry athlete

I must say, I was quite pleased with this thin, cream-based sauce, just enough to cover the pasta.

Ingredients:
8 ounces (dry) rotini pasta, cooked (1/2 a 16oz package)
1/4 cup half and half
2 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
1 T butter
1/4 cup grated Romano cheese
black pepper to taste
2 T toasted pine nuts
1 T chopped parsley for color and crunch (I didn't have it and wished I did)

Method:
Cook pasta per box instructions, drain. While doing that, in a small saucepan, heat cream and two cloves of garlic. Keeping to a very low simmer and keeping the cream moving, steep the cloves for ten minutes. Add butter and let melt. Remove cloves. Add cheese and whisk on very low heat. Sauce will be thin but stir only until cheese is melted. Season with black pepper, pour over pasta, toss with pine nuts, garnish with parsley, and serve yourself. One could easily turn this into a meal for two by adding a chicken breast, salad and dividing by two. I tallied up the calories on this lady and she weighs in at 960 for the serving.

Et voila, my new favorite heavy-duty meal!