Fettucine Alfredo with Brocolli

This is one of my all time favorite dishes. But, I do have a rule about it - Fettucine alfredo should always have brocolli on top of it. There is something magical about that combination.

It is an absolute sin if the restaurants serve Fettucine Alfredo without brocolli. There should be a permanent ban on serving this dish without brocolli. The brocolli has to be there. Yes. Forever and ever. Period.

As you can see, I love this dish. Everytime we order this in a restaurant, I do a special request to add brocolli on top - drives my husband nuts. He always complains that I can never order anything off a proper menu. I always need to add or delete stuff from it. That's just me.

Anyways - this is a little more spicer version with a kick. I did not have the patience to prepare the alfredo sauce from scratch and hence used the bottle version.

Cook the fettucine al dente in a pot of boiling water - add some salt to it while boiling. Drain and wash the fettucine.

In a pan, add about 1tsp of olive oil, add fresh garlic if you like. Add the brocolli stems to this and saute for a min. Don't cook this a lot -the brocolli has to be crisp but cooked. When that is done, add the alfredo sauce to this and cook for a min. I don't add too much sauce - enough to just coat

the pasta well.

Some people add brocolli on top at the very end. But, I like it this way - just because when you bite into the brocolli, you can taste the sauce and that is a good feeling.

Mix the cooked fettucine with this. Fry for a min.

Here comes the best part - adding the spices.

Add these things below - if you don;t have any of these - add red chilli powder and some garam masala or fresh mint or fresh spinach - those add a lot of flavor and taste too.

Add about 1/2 - 1 tsp of each and mix well with the pasta. Add salt to taste if you require it. The last ingredient is the kicker - I add a lot of it - red chilli flakes. Love it!

Tada - here's your quick pasta.

This is definetly not a gourmet version of fettucine alfredo. But its a really good quick version with ready made ingredients. A better version of this is with fresh herbs - fresh basil and fresh oregano and fresh parsley and lots of red chilli flakes! And grated fresh parmesan on top! Yummm..