This pasta three-way is brought to you by the leftover pesto that was hanging out in my fridge from my breakfast post a few days ago. I almost served it an eviction notice until a trip to Whole Foods on Valentine’s Day took the life out of me and I just wanted to keep things simple for our dinner at home. All I had to do was just boil water for pasta and make a cream sauce.

We like options in this house and we also like to try new things and having this pesto in the fridge stare straight at me and tell me “I need to use it or lose it” really inspired these dishes. What started out as an Alfredo sauce, things escalated quickly in the kitchen and I ended up with three different pasta dishes and leftovers for lunch!

Here’s the cast of characters:
Linguine three ways tossed in pesto, a pesto cream sauce, and an Alfredo sauce. (Only the last two pictured here…not sure where the plain pesto picture went, who am I kidding I probably ate it)

Here’s what you’ll need for this three-way:

The leftover pesto from Thursday (click link here)
16 oz box of Linguine or pasta of choice
2 cloves of garlic, minced
5 tablespoons of butter
3 tablespoons of flour (all-purpose)
1 3/4 cup half and half
1 1/4 cup heavy cream
6 oz Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (shredded)
Salt and pepper

In a medium stock pot on medium high heat melt butter and begin to sauté the minced garlic for about 3 minutes until softened. Sprinkle in flour and whisk it into the butter creating a roux (a thick paste). Whisk it and let it turn to a golden color being careful not to burn it. Do not let it get brown! Slowly add in the heavy cream and half and half whisky while you are incorporating. Let this thicken up usually taking less than 7-8 minutes, sometimes longer depending on your stove. While this is thickening, bring a large stock pot full of salted water to a boil. Cook pasta as direct on package. Now that the cream is thickened, remove from heat and add the cheese whisking until it is fully melted. Salt and pepper to taste.

Now assemble your three-way. Prepare three bowls and divide the cooked pasta evenly among the bowls. Add a couple ladles of Alfredo sauce to one bowl and toss. In the next bowl, add a ladle of the Alfredo and about a 1/4 cup of pesto, mix together to make a light green pesto cream sauce. In the third bowl toss the linguine with a couple scoops of pesto coating the noodles.

Now enjoy your plethora of pasta!

Masarap!