Pacific Rim Alfredo with Lemon and Thyme

What do you get when you combine these 3 market-fresh ingredients?

A few months ago, I was ecstatic to discover the Pappardelle's Pasta stand at Seattle's Pike Place Market. Pappardelle's Pasta is available all over the U.S. and at The Market, they have bins and bins of the most amazing looking and great smelling pasta you'll find. It is too hard to pick just one kind per trip.

So my last time there, I picked up a few! One of the first Pappardelle's Pastas I cooked was their Pacific Rim Pasta Blend, shown above. I was attracted to its name and its vibrant colors, shapes, and of course the ingredients it is made of. They include lemon, ginger, buckwheat, garlic, cilantro, cayenne, curry, spinach, onions, and leeks to name a few. I had no idea what this would taste like, or even what I was going to make it with, but it was so aromatic that I had to try it.

Then one cold evening, when I was craving rich, winter comfort food without a lot of work, I created my Pacific Rim Alfredo with Lemon and Thyme. I decided to use the freshest ingredients I had, including the fresh lemon (pucker up, baby! ha :) and thyme shown above, which I had also picked up from Pike Place Market. A comforting, creamy alfredo can really sparkle when instead of using plain old fettucini, you use the multi-colored and bold-flavored Pacific Rim Pasta Blend.

I used:
1/2 lb Pappardelle's Pacific Rim Pasta Blend
1 cup heavy cream (if you prefer a lighter version, combine half & half and milk)
2 tbspns butter
1 clove minced garlic
1/2 lemon zested & some of its freshly squeezed juice
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan
salt & pepper to taste
a pinch freshly ground nutmeg
a few twigs fresh thyme leaves, plucked
more grated parmesan, to top off before serving

My method:
1. Cook the pasta.
2. In a non-stick sauce pan, heat the butter on medium and throw in the garlic.
3. Let it cook for a few minutes without letting it burn, and add the cream.
4. Keep whisking as it heats -- the key is to not let a skin form.
5. Once the cream heats up a bit, add freshly grated parmesan and keep stirring till it melts. Make sure you leave no lumps.
6. Add salt, freshly ground pepper, and nutmeg to taste.
7. Once the sauce thickens, add the lemon zest, thyme, and a squeeze of lemon juice to the mix.
8. Add the cooked pasta and toss for a minute or two, then take it off the heat.
9. Serve with freshly grated parmesan, pepper, and I suggest you pair with your favorite citrus-strong Riesling!

The fresh lemon and thyme accented the pasta's own herbs and spices perfectly and garlic brought all the flavors together. The red ziti in Pacific Rim Pasta Blend also has a huge kick of cayenne. Pappardelle's people were serious when they had warned there was cayenne in there. Every time I got a bit of the red ziti, I was glad to have a creamy alfredo balancing it off.

Whenever we have an alfredo, we open a different bottle of Riesling, which we find to be the most versatile wine. We especially look for a Riesling with enough citrus to cut through the creaminess and cleanse our palates for the next bite! Pacific Rim with Alfredo was a perfect match for a stand-up, New World Riesling like many we have met from Upstate New York and the Pacific Northwest.

Pappardelle's Pasta in Pike Place Market also shares recipe suggestions with market-goers, and I'll have to suggest they spread the word about my Pacific Rim Alfredo with Lemon and Thyme :)