Bowtie and Asparagus Pasta

I may have mentioned this before, but my mom gave me her neighborhood's cookbook for Christmas and I've been trying all kinds of recipes from it. I just made this recipe last week and, mmm...so good. I loved it! It took a little bit of time to prepare, but for me, that always happens with new recipes. After I make this a few times I'll have a system down and it'll go much faster.

Ingredients:

1 box bowtie pasta

1/2 c. butter

2 garlic cloves, minced

3/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese

1-2 chicken bouillon cubes (I used 2)

1 pt. heavy cream (I only had a 1/2 pint, so I substituted the rest with fat free half and half)

Salt and pepper to taste

10-15 spears asparagus, blanched

1/2 c. bacon, crumbled

1/4 c. pine nuts, toasted

Fresh parsley (I used about a 1/2 c. chopped)

Parmesan cheese to taste

Directions:

Boil bowtie pasta in salted water until al dente. Do not overcook. In wok or heavy skillet, melt butter. Add minced garlic and sauté a minute or so. Add Parmesan cheese and bouillon cubes. When the bouillon cube is disolved, slowly stir in heavy cream until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add cooked pasta to cream sauce and toss until pasta is well covered. Add blanched asparagus. Sprinkle with crumbled bacon, toasted pine nuts, parsley, and Parmesan cheese then toss together. Serve immediately.

Serves 6-8

*I found that the chicken bouillon took awhile to disolve. I think the next time I make this, I'll use Better than Bouillon instead. Since it's a paste instead of a cube, it will disolve quickly; I think it'll give a better flavor to the dish as well.

This makes quite a bit of pasta; I should have known - it uses a whole box of pasta! You may want to half this recipe if you're only making it for a few people. My kids didn't eat it - big surprise there - so there was quite a bit left for me and my hubby. Surprisingly, it was still really good leftover. Normally I don't like dishes like this left over because the cream and butter separate and it just doesn't taste as yummy as it did when it was fresh. Besides, then you can see just how much butter you're actually eating and that's not appetizing. I prefer to conceal the butter as much as possible! However, this was still pretty good. The sauce did seperate some, but it didn't completely gross me out like, oh, I don't know...the way leftovers from Olive Garden do. :)


*Update - I made this again last night and the bouillon dissolved just fine, so really you could use either the cubes or Better than Bouillon.   :)  Oh, and Andrew actually ate the pasta - minus the asparagus.  Can't blame him though; I didn't like asparagus until just recently.