Pasta with Roasted Garlic Cream Sauce and Broccoli

Now, this is by no means low-fat or low-calorie, but I figure if I'm going to eat something indulgent, I'm better off making it at home where I know what goes into it and where I can control the portion size. The roasted garlic adds so much to this cream sauce. I love the distinctive sweet flavor, and I get quite a bit of pleasure from squeezing the roasted cloves out of their papery skin. If you roast the garlic before hand, this recipe takes practically no time to put together, and roasting the garlic doesn't take too terribly long to begin with.

Roasted Garlic Cream Sauce
source: Elizabeth's Cooking

Ingredients
1 head garlic, roasted (instructions to follow)
Olive oil
1 cup cream or half & half
2 TBSP milk
1-3 TBSP butter
1 clove garlic, minced
dash salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Red pepper flakes, optional
Pasta (This made enough sauce for about a half package of pasta.)

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Cut the garlic head in half (you should have a top and bottom half, not a left and right side). Place each half on a sheet of tin foil. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt & pepper. Bake for about 25 minutes. Remove from oven, let sit about 5 minutes, and then open the tin foil to let the garlic cool.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta to al dente. Drain & set aside. (I put the pasta in while the sauce was coming to a boil and threw in cut-up broccoli florets for the last few minutes of the pasta cooking.)

In a medium skillet, combine cream, milk, butter, minced garlic, and salt & pepper. Thicken by whisking in about 2 tsp flour, if necessary. Bring to just boiling. Reduce heat to low. Add cheese and whisk till smooth. If sauce is too thick, add some stock (chicken or veggie) or some more milk.

Now, squeeze the garlic out of the paper-y skin. The bottom half should take a bit more work than the top. They should just sort of fall out of the top with just a little squeeze from the top. You might have to dig a little on the bottom. Mash with a metal potato masher or the back of a fork. Add to the cream sauce and whisk together. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Sprinkle with red pepper flakes.

Serve over pasta. Sprinkle with more red pepper flakes (I added parsley as well) to taste.