Creating Pasta Dishes With Avocado

Avocado might not be the first ingredient to come to mind when you think about pasta recipes or even Italian recipes but its savory, creamy and almost nutty flavor makes it ideal for pairing with pasta. Add some other Italian ingredients and you can make a really amazing dish.If you want to make a great sauce for your spaghetti, simply process a bunch of basil, two cloves of garlic, two tablespoons of olive oil, a cup and a half of walnuts or pine nuts, quarter of a cup of parmesan and half a teaspoon of sea salt in your food processor until the mixture is nearly smooth. You might need to add a little more liquid. Toss this sauce with a chopped avocado and some hot pasta. This is a simple recipe but a really good one.If you want to make a sophisticated dish with shrimp and tequila, as well as the pasta, you might like the following recipe. You can make this meal in about ten minutes, which is great, if you want a sophisticated dish without the long cooking times associated with many great meals. This serves four people.What You Need:1 lb fettuccine
1 lb peeled shrimp
8 big, cored, de-seeded tomatoes
1/2 cup tequila
1 bunch chopped cilantro
1 de-seeded avocado
2 teaspoons salt
1 stick unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakesHow To Make It:Puree the tomatoes in a blender until the mixture is smooth. You might need to add a little water. Bring a pot of water to a boil, and then add the pasta and salt and cook for eight minutes or until the fettuccine is al dente. Drain it in a colander. Melt four tablespoons of the butter in a skillet, then saute the shrimp with some salt, pepper and red pepper for a couple of minutes or until they are pinkish orange.Add the tequila and flambe the mixture. Transfer the shrimp to a plate, using a slotted spoon. Add the tomato puree to the butter in the skillet and bring it to a boil. Add more salt and pepper if necessary. Stir the rest of the butter into the sauce with the shrimp and let it melt. Serve the sauce over the hot pasta. Garnish the dish with the cilantro and avocado and serve right away.Gourmet Citrus Sauce For PastaThis is another wonderful sauce that you could make using avocado. Melt an ounce of butter in a pan and saute a couple of chopped green onions for a minute. Add a teaspoon each of grated lemon and orange peel and half a teaspoon of ground coriander. Take the mixture off the heat. Combine six ounces of light cream with three tablespoons of plain yogurt, and then add some salt and pepper.Chop a couple of avocados and stir them into the yogurt mixture. Add this to the pan and gently warm it up. Make sure the sauce never reaches a boil, else it will curdle, and the avocado will go soggy. Serve this sauce over pasta. You can start it in advance if you like but do not add the avocados until just before it is ready.