(Finally,) A Companion for Beet Pasta: Blue Cheese Sauce

Sometimes, I need a bit of prodding to complete a project. I've had this beet pasta in my deep freeze now since September, in part since I was hoping to share it was someone as passionate about beets as I am. I unearthed a portion for lunch today, and finally completed a sauce worthy of vibrant fuchsia noodles: a blue cheese sauce.

I had this sauce in mind since the noodles were first birthed, but when I ate them originally, I was absolutely contented to eat them with a bit of butter and salt and pepper. Indeed, the blue cheese sauce is "gilding the lily" so to say, since homemade noodles are always worthy of "nakedness" in my book, but sometimes the deep flavor of blue cheese is worth eating on almost anything. The pure beauty of this sauce is that it would also be a welcome addition to salad or roasted broccoli just as easily as it is added to the top of these noodles. A plain, raw carrot would be as fortunate for the introduction as would some fried cheese or spinach salad. The possibilities are endless, and I'm glad the prodding resulted in the concoction!

Blue Cheese Sauce for Beet Pasta

Because this sauce is so easy and mathematically proportional, I am giving you the amounts I made for about a 1/2 cup of sauce. It is easily doubled, tripled or quadrupled - depending on how saucy you like things! Any extra you have won't last for long, once your imagination gets going.

• 2 oz blue cheese (I used Wisconsin's Mindoro Blue Gorgonzola, but any type of strong or mild blue or bleu will do)
• 2 oz half and half
• 1 T. flour
• Kosher salt
• black pepper

Combine and stir half and half and blue cheese in a skillet and heat over low heat until the cheese melts into the milk. When the mixture is nicely warmed and melted, add a tablespoon or so of warm milk/cheese mixture to the tablespoon of flour and stir to make a smooth paste. Whisk the paste into the milk/cheese mixture and turn up the heat a bit until the mixture thickens. Remember that the mixture will also thicken more as it cools. When properly sauce like, turn off the heat and season with salt and pepper. The sauce will have a blue-cheeseish hue, but is cleverly disguised by the vibrancy of the pink noodles. Garnish with toasted, chopped walnuts, and additional crumbled blue cheese if desired.

You may be able to omit the flour if you use a heavy cream instead of half and half, but personally, I always have half and half on hand and need to add heavy cream to the grocery list. The flour roux does thicken the sauce nicely, and the texture is delicious in my opinion.

A pretty posh lunch, I'd say. And the funny thing is that it seems posh, but really takes no time at all, especially when you have the pasta frozen and waiting for you. Not a bad thing to be able to pull out of your sleeve - especially, say, when eagerly anticipating a marmalade canning, food blogger joint project later in the month!