Test Kitchen #25: Garlic & White Wine Sauce

A couple of weeks ago, on one of those nights where neither of us felt like cooking, Matt and I went down the street to one of our favorite neighborhood Italian joints, Vazzy's. As soon as we walked in the door, we were greeted by the most wonderful garlic aroma wafting through the entire dining room. While I usually have a hard time deciding what I want to eat, I knew right away that I wanted something with garlic sauce.

When dining out, I try to order things that I wouldn't often cook myself. I usually steer away from pasta because I can make it at home anytime and most restaurants tend to go a little overboard on the serving sizes. It's still hard to believe that there are chefs out there thinking that it's okay for the average human to eat what seems like an entire box of pasta in one sitting. And that's before you add the heavy Alfredo cream sauce. I'm sure we're catering to the senior citizen crowd, who is so psyched over their $10.95 meal that will feed them dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow! ("It's like you're paying for two meals in one. It's a great deal!) I'm talking to you, Log Cabin. If I want volume and savings, I'll go to Costco. Thanks.

(Where did that rant come from?)

Anyway, on this particular night, I veered from my no pasta rule in order to find something with garlic sauce on it when my eyes landed happily upon Vazzy's Pasta Mali. My choice of chicken or sausage over penne with sun-dried peppers and a garlic white wine sauce. I opted for the sausage and skipped the peppers. This has easily become my new favorite pasta. The smell of the garlic is only outdone by it's amazing flavor. The sauce was creamy but translucent. Thick enough to coat the pasta, and not so thin that it would run directly through the food. I very nearly ate the whole thing which made me grateful that the portion looked more like only half a box then a whole one.

I reasoned it was okay to break my no pasta rule because I don't know how to make garlic white wine sauce and would probably never make it on the spur of the moment. Suddenly, the perfect candidate for the following week's test kitchen had presented itself. Dad and I have always enjoyed the trials and errors of cooking that I was pretty sure, we could figure this one out.

After a few quick searches, we started out with this basic recipe, knowing that we could leave room for tweaking. The recipe was pretty easy, but what it lacked a thicker consistency that would better coat pasta. Made as is, this mixture would probably run straight through anything you poured it on, leaving a pool of liquid on the bottom and all the good stuff floating on the top.

Garlic & White Wine Sauce
(Served with broccoli over medium shells)
Made four large servings

Ingredients:
12 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1 can (14 oz) of low sodium chicken broth
6 oz. of dry white wine or cooking wine
8 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 stick of butter
2 tablespoons of flour
16 oz. box of medium shells
1 (12oz) package of frozen broccoli
Salt & pepper to season
Splash of lemon juice
Sprinkle of parsley

Steps:
1. Heat the saucepan on medium low, and coat the bottom with the oil.

2. Add garlic cloves and cook until softened. Do not let the garlic brown or burn.

3. Add the white wine and chicken stock to the pan. Cover sauce pan and let simmer for ten minutes.

4. At the same time, prepare shells, or desired pasta, per package directions. When cooked, drain and set aside. In the same pot, add the broccoli, along with a little butter, salt and pepper and cook on medium high, until warmed through. Add the pasta back into the pot. Toss all to combine and reduce heat to low to keep everything warm.

5. When the sauce is done simmering, remove from pan to a bowl or measuring pitcher. In the same sauce pan, create a roux by combining 1/2 a stick of butter with the flour. Stir until a paste forms. Slowly add the sauce liquid back into the pan, stirring as you add to avoid any lumps from forming.

6. Bring all to a boil. Keep stirring until sauce thickens. Turn off heat but leave pan on warm burner. Add pasta and broccoli to the sauce pan and combine all so everything is evenly coated with sauce. Splash with lemon juice and sprinkle with dried parsley or with 1/2 cup of fresh chopped parsley.

The Verdict:
For our first go around, I thought it was pretty good. It's amazing! You'd think that the intensity of 12 cloves of garlic would surely knock you out, but the flavor was in fact fairly mild. I think the trick with learning to make sauces is realizing that so much of the liquid reduces while it's cooking that you never get as much as you started out with. Our sauce did a nice job of thinly coating all the pasta and broccoli, but I would have definitely have preferred more sauce or less pasta.

Sure it was no Vazzy's, but we are still learning and it's always good to have a benchmark to work towards.