Now that classes and finals are over I’ve really been able to get into my cooking! Tonight I tried a recipe from my new Real Simple. I love Real Simple, I know that might questionably age me about 10 years, but there are so many great tips and they always have good recipes that aren’t too complicated or too time consuming. It’s a great resource. So tonight I made Creamy Fettuccine with Leeks, Corn and Arugula.

First, I boiled the pasta. I used some flat leftover pasta that I happened to have. I suppose this calls for fettuccine but whatevs.

Tip: when I cook pasta I always boil the water and then prep the ingredients when the pasta is cooking. Then, after I finished cooking the pasta I drain it and use the same pot of the sauce. Thus, I only have one pot to clean when I’m done and I am more in control cutting my ingredients and don’t feel rushed about adding them.

While I cooked the pasta I chopped leeks.

Chopped garlic and measured out corn. I also measured out the liquids for the sauce. The recipe calls for a combo of white wine and heavy cream.

Generally, I like to keep a red and a white wine on hand. I also don’t buy “cooking” wines. I like to keep the wine selection simple and fairly inexpensive (hi Trader Joe’s!) I like red wine so I generally use what ever I have around the house, but I am not as fond of white wine for drinking purposes. I just have a dry wine on hand for situations like today where I’m making a sauce.

As you can see, the recipe doesn’t call for much. It calls for slightly less heavy cream.

At this point I drained the pasta and started the sauce. I put in a dollop of EVO in the pan and put in the leeks and garlic. After the leeks and garlic are tender (like 3 mins) I added the wine and the corn.

Yum! Mix it in and let the wine reduce! Then add heavy cream, cheese, salt, and pepper.

The thing about cheese: I think Ralph’s over charges for cheese. I’m sorry, I don’t have $10.00 to pay for perorino I’m only going to use once. I cannot wait til I can afford it normally. And also, why do they have to charge so much when Trader’s charges less? There must be a reasonable explanation for it, like quality. I don’t care though, I just want a single serving of expensive cheese. How hard does that have to be? Instead I used this which only cost me $2.38. It was a more than adequate replacement.

And then I folded in a handful of arugula. It looked like this when I was done:

Delish! It was so nice to put on the apron and chill with some dinner. Another cool thing about Real Simple? They publish calorie counts. This meal had 596 calories, which is right around where I like to be for dinner. See, you can have fettuccine with not too many calories, its all about portion control.

Tomorrow my little brother, David, is coming to LA so there will be some fun updates.