Fettuccine with Low-Fat Cream Sauce

I'm following through on my promise to share recipes that we try, along with pictures and the results (did I promise that?). Anyway, today we tried a recipe called Fettuccine with Low Fat Cream Sauce with Summer Vegetables and Herbs de Provence. We got it from a gal called Emily Webber.com.

Let me start by saying it sounds fancy, with the "herbs de provence", but that is basically just a blend of dried herbs: savory, marjoram, basil, oregano, thyme, and rosemary. We didn't have rosemary or savory, so I just left those out.

The cream sauce consists of raw cashews* that are soaked in water for 4 hours, diced yellow squash, herbs de provence, salt, pepper, and some water.

I know, weird, right? I had some reservations, but you don't know until you try, so I tried. It's blended it up until it's the consistency of cream.

When I tasted the cream, it was surprisingly good! With the cashews it had a savory, nutty flavor, but with the herbs, and the subtle flavor of the squash, it had a nice balance.

The "Summer Vegetables" are carrot, baby spinach, cremini mushrooms, yellow or orange bell pepper, broccoli florets (I used some frozen chopped broccoli, because I didn't feel like "choppin' brocco-lay" {SNL reference}), yellow squash, zucchini, garlic, and tomatoes (we did not use tomatoes because we don't like tomatoes in cream sauce).

So after sauteing the veggies together, you add the cream sauce and heat it through. Then toss in the pasta and spinach and that's it. Not too taxing for me, since I don't like "slaving" in the kitchen all day. Here's the finished product:

Looks good, huh? And you know what? It was! Oh, I forgot to mention that we used penne instead of fettuccine because I thought I already had fettuccine on hand, but I didn't, and all I had was spaghetti, rotini, and penne. This dish was creamy, savory, hearty, and delicious. It's definitely a keeper!


* Tip: the term "raw" when referring to cashews is a misnomer, since cashews cannot be eaten raw out of the shell. There is a toxic resin that is under the shell, and in order to separate the nut from the shell without getting any of the toxic resin on the nut, it has to be steam-heated, until the shell opens and the nut comes out. So, in essence, the nut is cooked. I didn't know that until I was trying to figure out if I'd be able to find raw cashews at the store or not. For this recipe, I bought a can of whole cashews, unsalted.