If you are reading this, that means we share something in common – a love for avocados! Love as in anything with avocado in it – salads, smoothies, guacamole, desserts and whatever else.
Going back to my childhood years, the only way I remember eating these velvety smooth fruits is in the form of an Avocado Fool – a sweetened and chilled concoction of mashed avocado, sugar and milk (or just condensed milk). Even now, I can recollect admiring the huge smooth green fruits (like the Florida type) hanging from trees waiting for someone to transform them into a Fool, the only way I think anyone there knew how to enjoy them! Fast forward to the present time and gosh only imagination is the limit!
I love creamy pastas but cringe at the thought of consuming more than a day’s worth of fat in just a single meal. Needless to say, it is one of my kids’ favorites. Knowing that they don’t get treated to the full-fat version at home, they try their luck at restaurants and honestly, I feel like it is some sort of a dietary “abuse” every time I reluctantly allow them to order a creamy pasta dish. Now, being an aficionado of creamy sauces like alfredo, I look for ways to lighten up the recipes by substituting low fat milk for cream, less butter etc. Then I came across the idea for an avocado-based sauce at http://sweetlifebake.com. The original recipe calls for 2 ripe avocados for 4 servings but I found that just 1 worked perfectly.
Mafalde in Creamy Avocado Sauce
Ingredients
1/2 pkg of 16oz Mafalde* pasta or any other pasta of your choice
1 Hass avocado
1/2 lemon
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup of chopped onions
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/4 cup of cilantro leaves
1 large Roma tomato, chopped
Salt to taste
Preparation
1. Cook pasta according to package instructions. Drain, reserving about 1/2 cup of pasta water.
2. Heat olive oil in a large skillet and sauté onions and garlic till lightly browned.
3. Transfer cooked onion and garlic to a blender.
4. Wipe the pan and add remaining tablespoon of oil.
5. Add chopped tomato to the pan the cook just until soft. Reduce heat to very low while making the sauce.
6. Scoop out pulp from the avocado and place in blender with the juice from 1/2 lemon, cilantro leaves and salt.
7. Start blending, incorporating just enough pasta liquid to make a thick sauce of desired consistency.
8. Transfer the pasta back to the pan with the tomato. Increase heat to medium.
9. Add the avocado sauce and gently stir to warm through.
7. Serve with extra sprinkling of cilantro and chopped tomato if desired.
* Mafalde pasta resembles a thinner version of lasagna pasta. It can be found in stores that carry a good variety of international ingredients. It can easily be substituted with other pasta of your choice.
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