There are a few pleasure in life, and eating spaghetti on a weekend with no worries is one of them. We usually like to get a little decadent on weekends adding plenty of cheese, beer, soda and chips to our diet and this spaghetti was no exception.
It was beautiful, like a song, creamy sauce with cheddar cheese, and crunchy beans.. a match made in heaven. This hearty meal took nothing more than 15 minutes to prepare.
Cook the spaghetti according to the package instructions and while that is happening, cut up 1/2 cup of green beans and put another pan of water on boiling, cuz we are going to cook the beans for a few minutes
Such pretty fresh green beans..
Into the boiling water they go, be careful while putting them in. Let them cook for 3-4 minutes. We don’t want to boil them.
Drain them after 4 minutes and under a stream of cool water. Look how green and gleaming they look.
In a skillet/pan heat 1/2 tbsp of olive oil and add chopped garlic and tip in the beans and fry for a couple of minutes until they are completely coated with the oil. I also add a pinch of oregano and some dried basil at this stage.
Here we have out beans set them aside and let’s get on with making the cheese sauce.
using the same pan we had fried our beans in, ad another 1/2 tbsp olive oil and once hot enough add in 1 tbsp flour and mix well for a couple of minutes until cooked.
I don’t have the rest of the pictures, since it got a teeny bit difficult stirring the sauce continuously and trying to take the picture at the same time.. but here’s how you do it.
Once the flour has has mixed with the oil and cooked for a minute, slowly add in the milk, around 100 mls and keep stirring dissolving all the flour and making sure there are no lumps. I also add around 30 mls of water to the very thick sauce since I would also be adding in cheese. keep stirring until the sauce is cooked, and you will know it when the white sauce starts coating the pack of your spoon.
Now add in 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese or any cheese that you fancy & keep stirring, add in 1 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper.take it off the heat and check the sauce for salt. Make sure the salt is enough because a bland cheese sauce is just blech !!!
Aaah.. here it is.. the glorious cheese sauce now being poured into the spaghetti tub.. these black clumps you see is the black pepper.. Pour in the sauce and add in the cooked beans.. Add a dash of dried basil and that’s all. Sprawl on the couch, put on a movie and eat and forget about everything else.. It’s a gorgeous, wonderful Saturday brunch single meal treat…
Enjoy !!!!
Driedredchillies 