First Successful Cream Sauce!

I have tried to make cream sauces for pasta before, and I never am satisfied w/ my concoctions. Remember my MO is easy... so I've looked on Cooks.com and opted for easy mac-n-chz sauces. This usually entails a roux (flour stirred into melted butter), milk, and then cheese melted in. I've never made a successful roux, this means I end up w/ a sauce that has a slight flour taste (ick!) and never thickens properly. This time I googled cream sauce and bechamel sauce. I dunno how this was different because the ingredients were primarily the same (roux and milk), but it turned out MUCH better!

First, my roux was a success! I melted abt 3 tablespoons of butter and started by adding abt 2 tablespoons of flour. I believe my typical failure w/ roux has been too much flour, or not enough butter, so this time I made sure I stirred in all the flour before attempting to add any more. I'd say I ended up w/ abt even parts, but it may have still been slightly more butter... regardless, it worked!

Once my roux was slightly browned, I poured in some skim milk (no idea how much...) and started to mix in order to stir in the roux to help thicken up the milk as it warms. As you have gathered, it worked. Usually I grate in some cheese to try and thicken it, but not only does it increase the fat content, but it doesn't do anything to rid the sauce of that raw flour taste. This time I actually decided to add more milk because the sauce was thickening up so quickly and nicely. I actually had considered adding some half and half I had on hand in case I need some thickener... I did also add a small piece of bleu cheese I had... I'd say roughly 2-3 ounces.

I added diced white onion to the sauce as it cooked, asparagus to the pasta as it cooked, and tossed them together w/ fresh tomato and raw garlic. To the sauce I also added salt, pepper, nutmeg, and maybe parsley and oregano...

All in all, I was pleasantly surprised by my cream sauce. It was thick, it didn't have the raw flour taste, and I felt like it was pretty guilt free w/ not too much butter or cheese and only skim milk!