Its Delish! Pasta In A Pink Sauce With A Beet, Cherry, And Candied Pecan Salad.

(not my photo! I forgot to take a picture of the final plate!)

Today's meal is one of my favorites! I love a pink sauce, but I only eat it occasionally because it is pretty caloric. But every now and then I like to indulge in a creamy cheese sauce ladled over some lovely pasta. I serve it with a salad of greens, beets, dried cherries, and candied pecans in a shallot dressing.

So to begin I put a pot of water on to boil. Then I make the dressing for the salad. I start with a small shallot:




Then I cut off either end:





Next I peel the shallot and slice it in half lengthwise:





Then I lay the cut side down on the cutting board and slice it into thin strips:





Once the shallot is sliced lengthwise into little strips, I cross cut it to create a little dice:





Then I put about a tablespoon of the dice into a bowl and add 2 tablespoons cider vinegar, 2 tablespoons walnut oil, and 1 -2 tablespoons olive or canola oil:





Then I whisk the whole thing with a pinch of salt and a few turns of the pepper mill:





Next I work on the pink sauce. For this I bring 1 cup of heavy cream up to a low simmer on low heat. You don't want to scald the cream, so be sure to do this on a low to medium heat:





To the cream I add one 8oz can of tomato sauce. Hunts is my favorite. (This can be done right after you pour in the cream so they both come to temperature together):





Once you start to see little bubbles forming around the sides of the pan, you know the sauce is warm enough:





Next comes the shredded cheese. You can use pretty much whatever you want to here, but I use 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan, 1/4 cup Asiago, 1/2 cup mozzarella, and 1/2 cup
Fontina. I buy these preshredded, but you could also buy these cheeses in a brick and shred them yourself:





Into the sauce it goes:





Use your spoon to mix the sauce as the cheese melts into the cream. YUM! Then leave it on a very low heat, or even turn the sauce off while you finish the meal. By now the water should have boiled so add 1 box of penne or rotoni to the salted water:





While the pasta is cooking, it is time to work on the salad. Remember, you already finished you dressing. So now it is time to slice the beets. I use canned beets and slice them myself. I think it looks better in the salad then those sad slivered beets. I use the same knifework as I did cutting the shallot. First I cut the beet in half:




(You might notice I am using a red cutting board. That is to keep the juice from staining a white board.)


Then I lay the cut side down on the board:





And then I slice the beets about 1/8" thick:





Next I open a bag of lettuce. I used 'lamb's ear' lettuce (or mache) which I find at Trader Joes, but any spring lettuce would work:





To the lettuce I add the beets, dried cherries (dried cranberries would also work here) and candied pecans (also found at Trader Joes):





I don't add the dressing yet. First I have to add a little chopped fresh basil to the pink sauce! To chop the basil I lay a few leaves on top of each other on the cutting board:





I adore fresh basil! The thing I like the best about this meal, is it only takes a small amount of fresh basil to really make the flavors sing, and it is pretty easy to get basil year round now. So I often make this in the dead middle of winter when I am wishing for summer because the fresh basil makes me think of hot weather and summer days. But I digress.

Once the basil is stacked up on one another, I roll the basil into a tube:





Then I lay the tube down on the cutting board and slice it thin. Then I cross cut the basil to create a small dice. Then the whole thing gets scraped into the creamy pink cheese sauce:




Doesn't that look good!

By now the pasta should be ready, so check for doneness and then drain. Then you can plate up the pasta, and add the sauce on top:





I used some of the leftover shredded cheese for garnish, but you could also use chopped basil for more contrast.

All you have left is to dress and toss the salad! Be sure not to let all the goodies fall to the bottom of the salad bowl. I hate it when that happens:




I was so excited for this meal, I ate it before I remembered to get a picture of the final presentation! Sorry about that. But I assure you, this meal is amazing, and it should only take about 30 minutes from start to finish!