Cook 1 cup pasta in at least 3 cups of drinking water seasoned with ½ teaspoon of salt. Adding fat (oil, butter) while cooking pasta does not stop it from sticking together. The key is to use enough water to prevent pasta from sticking together. The recommended ratio for pasta and water is at least 1:3. It is always better to boil more water than to get stuck with sticky undercooked pasta. If there is enough water, you also don’t need to stir pasta too much. Add pasta after salt water starts boiling. Cook for about 15 minutes or so until al dente.  Cooking al dente means that pasta (rice or bean) is cooked throughout but still retains its firm texture, i.e., is not mushy due to overcooking.  Do not rinse pasta after cooking.  Good quality durum wheat (semolina) pasta should not release too much starch and whatever remaining starch there is will help stick sauce to the pasta.

Heat ½ tablespoon butter in a large pan over high heat.

As soon as butter melts, add chicken. Stir chicken every 30 s or so for 2 minutes or so until you get some browning on surface. You don’t need to cook chicken throughout because you will continue cooking it. Too much cooking will make chicken dry.

Lower heat to medium. Add 4-5 tablespoons of cream cheese.

Add ¼ cup white wine. Here I used cooking white wine.

Simmer for 5 minutes or so. Taste without burning your tongue. Add black pepper and salt if you desire.

I tasted the cooked flavored garganelli pasta by itself before mixing with the sauce. I could taste strong turmeric flavor and delicate spinach flavor in yellow (1) and green (5) pastas, respectively. I could not detect strong flavors in other pastas but could tell there was a subtle hint of hidden flavor. The image shows cooked pasta on top and raw pasta on bottom.

Add cooked pasta. Mix.

The chicken alfredo was creamy and rich and had a simple flavor with hint of wine and black pepper. You can substitute a tablespoon of cream cheese with other cheeses such as parmesan for flavor. Other things you can do for flavor is add caramelized shallots, add vegetables such as spinach. Instead of chicken (or along with it), you can also add mushrooms. There are lots of ways to flavor this dish, play with it and you may stumble into deliciousness. Eat!