No Valentine’s day meal this year but! My mom’s birthday falls on the very next day which is a great excuse to make a yummy, indulgent dinner. So I did. The sauce is really the key here – a garlicky, alfredo sauce that goes well with whatever noodles / veggies / meat combination you want to throw in. She’ll like whatever you cook – she’s your mom, after all.

Pasta for my mom

Ingredients:
2 shallots, chopped
1 zucchini, chopped (peeled mine, too)
½ pint cherry or grape tomatoes, chopped
2 chicken breasts grilled and chopped
1T white wine

angel hair pasta (1 450g package)

sauce:
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup butter
2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
1.5 cup grated Parmesan cheese
sprinkle of parsley

Melt a bit of butter or oil over medium heat. Add shallots and cook for 3 minutes or until they start to stick. Deglaze pan with a splash of white wine (optional). Add zucchini and tomatoes and cook for 3 more minutes. Remove from pan and set aside. Cook pasta in salted water, drain and return to pot.

Melt 1/4 cup butter, then add 2 cloves garlic and 1 cup cream, then simmer over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring often. Stir in Parmesan cheese and continue to stir until melted, about 2 minutes. Pour over pasta, add veggies/chicken, and stir. Sprinkle with parsley. Volia!

Dessert:
I also made chocolate lava cakes, following a mashup of a few recipes that I found online but they didn’t turn out very well. Bake times varied from 6 to ten minutes, and we ate ours after they finally looked set (~ 17 minutes) Maybe my oven sucks, but they were still mostly liquidy chocolate goo. Tasted ok topped with raspberries and whipped cream, but not worth posting. Will keep looking.

Have a wonderful weekend!