Okay, who is ready for a little story time?

Once upon a time about 5 years ago, my husband and I were dating, lived about 2 hours apart, and were preparing to celebrate our first Valentine’s Day together. Being cutesy and in love, we planned out what we were going to do. A few things were road blocks for us and planning. The first being the distance apart from each other, second that Valentine’s Day fell during the week, and thirdly, my now husband was still working in public accounting.

Which meant that in mid February he was working insanely late hours, both on week days and weekends. Which makes it very hard to go out to dinner. Seriously, no restaurant wants you walking in at 9:30 or 10 pm as they are trying to close up.

So, we decided to stay in instead. And my husband decided he wanted to cook for me. I forced my help on him since he was going to try to do this after a very long week. And the fact he really didn’t cook much, at all, ever, back then.

He decided to make us pasta alfredo. And from there started a tradition.

That first Valentine’s day and a couple of others involved a canned sauce. Pretty tasty stuff, but not authentic. One year I came home from a late night of classes and had mushroom tortellini in alfredo waiting for me. Thinking back now, I don’t remember if we ate pasta last year, so I wanted to make sure we did this year.

We both worked on Valentine’s Day this year, so dinner that night was pho. Not our tradition, but still a favorite.  But the next day I was off from work, it was pouring rain by the afternoon, and my husband was able to come home early. Snuggled in warm and dry, over a bottle of wine and with the fireplace going, we made this pasta alfredo together and toasted another happy day spent together.

We really are this gooshy, mushy, and lovey with each other. It’s a sickness really.

Pasta Alfredo

Adapted from The World in My Kitchen (who has a similar story of love and alfredo)

1 lb pasta, traditionally would be fettuchini, but we used linguini
1 stick butter, cut into smallish cubes
4 cloves of garlic, minced
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1 cup half-and-half
1/3 lb grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup freshly cooked or frozen peas (no need to thaw)
3/4 cup finely sliced prosciutto

Cook the pasta in boiling salted water until just al dente. Drain in a colander and return them to the pan you boiled them in. Add in the butter and place over medium low heat.

While the butter melts, grind as much pepper as you would like over the pasta and gently toss together. Once the butter as completely melted, add in the garlic and again toss to combine. Continue stirring the pasta gently while the garlic cooks for 3-4 minutes. You want it to start to smell fragrant.

Add the half-and-half, gently mixing it into the lasta mixture. continue to cook the pasta until most of the half-and-half has been absorbed.

Add the cheese, peas and prosciutto. Continue to gently mix everything together until the cheese has melted and the peas and prosciutto have heated through. Serve hot with additional cheese and fresh black pepper at the table for those who want more of either.

I’ve linked up to the Pasta Blog Hop at Katherine Martinelli!