SPONSORED POST: Classico Light Creamy Alfredo

I always enjoy getting that email from Foodbuzz that says I qualified to sample something from their Tastemaker program. When the announcement came out that Foodbuzz and Classico had teamed up to distribute Classico's new Light Creamy Alfredo sauce, I was on board! Our household has really been getting into baked pasta with alfredo sauce lately. Lucky me, Classico was already my brand of choice for Alfredo. So here it is, I got a box from Foodbuzz containing a jar of alfredo sauce. "50% less fat, and 45% less calories than the leading brand of alfredo sauces," says the packaging.

A box of bow tie pasta

A bag of shredded cheese

A handful of thick pieces of garlic. I put a lot. The more, the better. Meanwhile, you should be boiling water for your bow tie pasta. Don't use the whole box. Maybe 2/3 or 3/4 of the box.

Sautee the garlic in EVOO until they're translucent. Add in some frozen peas and peeled and deveined shrimp(not pictured). When the pasta is cooked to al dente and drained, toss it into to your shrimp, peas, garlic sautee. Pour the entire jar of alfredo sauce on top and toss on low heat until evenly coated.

Transfer to baking dish. A casserole dish would be a much better option but I only have baking pans right now. Baking pans make the pasta a little dry though. Sprinkle the entire bag of cheese evenly on top and pop into the oven at 400 degrees. 15 mins or until cheese is golden brown.

mmm cheesey baked pasta

Phil really loved this. The best part that we both agreed on was that you can't tell it's light. We couldn't taste a difference between the new light sauce and the creamy alfredo we've used before. I did notice the consistency of the sauce is a bit runnier than Classico's creamy alfredo sauce, but once its in the dish, you don't taste a difference. Also note that my proportions were off and that I should have used less pasta so there wasn't as much sauce coverage as I'd like. Sprinkle with red pepper flakes and enjoy!

 For comparison, here are some of the batches we made before with regular creamy alfredo. We've experimented with different baking pans of all shapes and depths and also with bow tie vs. penne pasta. Less cheese vs. more cheese. Baked to a crispier brown vs. a lighter golden brown.

Here's the inside of the batch above made with Classico's regular creamy alfredo sauce. So the winner is, more sauce, more cheese, bow tie pasta, and baked to a light golden brown but not burnt. Also, the winner is Classico's Light Creamy Alfredo sauce because it has less calories and you can't taste the difference. Thanks Foodbuzz and Classico for this opportunity!

P.S. This Saturday I will be at the Foodbuzz Blogger Festival in San Francisco. Catch my recap of last year's festival below. 

Video blog of goodie bag items

Foodbuzz 2010 pt 1

Foodbuzz 2010 pt 2 (I still have dreams of eating that delicious seared scallop again)