Romantic hunger to be satisfied by pasta meal

Italian food gets amore flowing

The thought of candlelit dinner shared with that special someone often conjures up images of a couple nestled over dimly lit plates of food — usually pasta.

Although the pasta at D-hall is great, there are few things that can make a homemade meal even better. With a little time, effort and a trip to the grocery store, anyone can create these decadent variations of fettucine alfredo and garlic bread.

Italians seem to have brought romantic dining to its highest form when they brought the act of cooking pasta into the spotlight. Alfredo’s Restaurant of Rome in Italy is credited with inventing fettucine alfredo in 1914, according to the Alfredo’s Restaurant of Rome Web site, www.alfredos.com/roma.

Although this pasta is a filling and delicious treat all on its own, garlic bread completes the meal. Buona fortuna!

Artichoke Fettucine Alfredo

Prep time: 10 minutes; Cook time: 20 minutes
1 stick of butter (8 tbsp)
5 to 7 cloves of garlic
1/3 of an onion
4 unseasoned canned artichoke hearts
one lemon slice
1 and cups of shredded parmesan cheese the blanks are for??
1 cup of fresh parsley
1 cup of half n half
15 oz box of fettucine
salt
pepper
garlic powder

Chop the garlic cloves, canned artichoke hearts and the onion into pieces and put them in a high-sided pan or pot, along with a tablespoon of butter on medium-low heat. Add one lemon slice, along with a dash of salt. Occasionally stir the ingredients so that they don’t burn. When the onions are translucent, remove the lemon slice and add the half-n-half. Cut the rest of the butter into pieces and add it slowly to the half-n-half mixture over five minutes. Make sure to continuously stir the mixture with a whisk. Once all the butter has been added, turn the heat up to medium and mix in the parmesan cheese. Cut up the fresh parley and add it along with salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste. When the parmesan completely is integrated into the half-and-half, add the cooked fettucine.

Garlic Bread

Prep time: 5 minutes; Cook time: 15 minutes
1 loaf of Italian or French bread
5 tbsp of melted butter
1 tsp of garlic powder
1 tsp of salt
1/3 cup of fresh parsley
pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the melted butter, garlic powder, salt and fresh parsley together with a dash of pepper. Cut the loaf of bread lengthwise and evenly drizzle the butter mixture over the inside of the bread. Put the two halves of the bread back together and put the loaf on a baking pan. Leave the bread in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes..