Pasta in Lime-Cilantro Alfredo Sauce

Pasta in Lime-Cilantro Alfredo Sauce - made July 31, 2020 from Julia's Album

This is another of those recipes that I had to make some adjustments to since I didn't have all the right ingredients. In these pandemic times, that's now the norm since, let's face it, I'm not enough of a cook to actually plan my "real food" cooking grocery list ahead of time. My style of cooking is to check my pinterest board, see what captures my fancy, evaluate whether I have most of the ingredients and go from there. In other words, unless I want to wait until I do my once-in-awhile grocery shopping, I cook from whatever's already in my pantry and refrigerator.

Case in point, the original recipe for this called for chicken breast, sliced, to make up the protein portion. I didn't have chicken breasts but I did have a couple of packs of ground turkey so I used one to substitute as the protein in this dish. I also was a little short on cilantro as I had used up most of it with the Lime-Cilantro Shrimp but you work with what you have.

One thing I wasn't short on was garlic. The recipe only called for 3 cloves but I had a bulb left that was drying out and I didn't know the next time the cooking muse would hit me with a recipe that required garlic so, yes, I used the whole thing. I'm sure a cooking expert would tell me something reasonable like I can freeze garlic but, oh well, too late now.

And while I'm confessing my cooking sins, I will also say, one squeezed lime didn't quite produce 2 tablespoons of lime juice so I squeezed another lime, ended up with more than 2 tablespoons and added all of it anyway. It's almost freeing to color outside the cooking lines since baking, as opposed to cooking, is much more exact. In retrospect, I support I could've used at least half of the second lime as garnish instead of squeezing it for the excess juice. I didn't think that far ahead.

Despite my cavalier cooking approach, this turned out fairly well. It's not as rich as a traditional Alfredo sauce but that made me like it more. The sauce does seem thin at first but I actually remembered in time (for once) that the sauce does thicken up and the noodles absorb the liquid so there's no need to try and thicken it. In fact, once the dish had cooled a bit, it almost seemed like there wasn't enough sauce. The excess garlic I used so freely took over the flavor profile but I could still taste the lime, if not the cilantro, as well. However, I don't recommend being me and using a whole bulb of garlic because it really is quite a lot of garlic. Oops.

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound ground turkey
salt and pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons lime juice, freshly squeezed
1/4 cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon fresh cilantro, chopped
2/3 cup heavy cream
2/3 cup milk
1/2 cup mozzarella or parmesan cheese, shredded
8 ounces spaghetti
reserved cooked pasta water
1 tablespoon fresh cilantro, chopped, for garnish

1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet on medium-high heat. Generously season ground turkey with salt and pepper. Add to hot skillet and cook, stirring and breaking into large pieces, until done. Remove from skillet.
2. To the same skillet, add minced garlic, lime juice and chicken broth. Deglaze the skillet over high heat, until liquid is reduced and garlic is browned. Mix in chopped cilantro.
3. Add heavy cream and milk. Bring to a boil then immediately add cheese. Mix until melted while boiling. Remove from heat.
4. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain, reserving some cooked pasta water. Add pasta to the sauce, along with half the ground turkey. Mix, coating noodles and turkey completely. If necessary, thin sauce with a little of the cooked pasta water. Top with remaining ground turkey, additional parmesan cheese if desired and garnish with remaining cilantro. Serve warm.