pasta with garlic butter cream sauce

she said WHAT?! yeah. pasta with GARLIC. BUTTER. CREAM. SAUCE.

uh huh. i went there.

so, i was looking for something to pair with my slow cooker italian chicken, and just plain rice and pasta did not sound ok with me. so i went to allrecipes, which i LOVE, btw, and searched for a sauce with garlic and butter. found it! i made a few modifications.

now, don't let the name of this recipe set up ideas of grandeur in your mind. it is great, but it is not a stand-alone dish. it still was, to me, a little bland, but paired great with a main dish that had a lot of sauce, like the slow cooker italian chicken i paired it with.

but i must say... while i was cooking... my kitchen did smell quite a bit like macaroni grill. JUST SAYING!

ok, ingredients:
1/3 cup butter
1 clove crushed garlic
1/4 tablespoon dried basil
2 teaspoons dried oregano

confession time:
confession 1: i'm going to have to try this again, because i kind of cheated. i had no oregano. so i used extra basil and i substituted italian seasoning. i think the oregano would have added an extra punch of flavor, so i'll work on that and let you know.

confession 2: i also added a little olive oil and a little heavy whipping cream, just for fun.

confession 3: i also tossed in some grated parmesan and a teaspoon of flour to thicken the sauce up a bit.

confession 4: i doubled the recipe. it just didn't seem like it added up to very much, so i just doubled it. glad i did too. it made for great lunch-time leftovers the next day.


directions:
1. in a saucepan, melt butter. add garlic and saute.

 again... i added some olive oil, flour, and parmesan.

2. that's basically it. i tossed the sauce in over pasta.

3. then i topped it with some parmesan.

what i will do next time is add some chunks of fresh mozzarella on top. i did this the next day (when i had it for leftovers), and i devoured the stuff. it may even be worth trying to toss a few cherry tomatoes in with the butter and garlic when they you saute them. place a few cherry tomatoes until they start to burst, and then stew them in with the sauce. just a suggestion/thought. i'll try this with some more variations and share my reports.

but, for now, i paired this with my slow cooker italian chicken, french bread, and olive oil bread dip, and it was a hit!

enjoy!

fin.