Dinner - Angel Hair in Cream and Cheese Sauce

Recently, I decided to revisit a couple of my favorite cookbooks. The Silver Spoon, published by Phaidon Press, is a beautiful, epic cookbook that takes up a good chunk of space on your cookbook shelf. It is the English translation of Italy's cooking "bible", kind of the equivalent of our (American) Joy of Cooking.

I wanted the cookbook since the day I saw it. Its nearly $50 price tag put me off for a while, but I saved up some money and with the help of a great bookstore discount I decided to purchase it. The recipes included are nice and fairly simple. They stick with minimal ingredients (something I obviously LOVE), and they manage to take a simple meal and make it seem decadent, expensive, and extraordinary.

Then the Silver Spoon people did something awful a few years later. The decided to release an expanded pasta section of the book, titled The Silver Spoon: Pasta. A necessary addition to the Kiefer cookbook library... (For the record, they have also released a children's cookbook, The Silver Spoon for Children.)

Anyways, the Silver Spoon people have seriously inspired my cooking from the moment that cookbook has entered my house, and I decided to start making more recipes from both of their beautiful books.

The first of (hopefully) many meals from the cookbooks comes from the Pasta edition. This is a very basic recipe for a nice side dish (or main course) of angel hair with a tasty cream sauce. It is really simple to make, and I am sure you can adjust the cheese to your liking, so it is quite versatile as well. We served the dish alongside a small steak and some nice (frozen) garlic bread.

Angel Hair in Cream and Cheese Sauce

Ingredients:
-3 tablespoons butter
-scant 1/2 cup heavy cream (we used heavy whipping cream)
-14 ounce package angel hair pasta
-3 ounces diced Gruyere cheese (we used 4 oz since that was the only pkg size available!)
-salt and pepper

Melt the butter in a bowl/pot set over a pot of simmering water (double-boiler style). Stir occasionally. Add cream and heat for a few minutes.
Cook the pasta in salted water to al dente and drain.
Pour cream mixture over drained pasta, add Gruyere and stir. Season with pepper and serve.
Simple and delicious!