I can't answer your goat cheese question but I am familiar with 'lighter' ways to prepare pasta. One way is to cook some fresh vegetables in water or chicken broth and puree them along with a bit of the cooking liquid and some herbs, either with a stick or conventional blender. Use the vegetable puree as the basis for your sauce, just like you would use a tomato puree.

You can saute lean meats, poultry or seafood and/or additional vegetables (including garlic) in olive oil and add it to the puree for a hearty but lower fat sauce.

Last week, I mixed asparagus and shallot puree, Penzey's fines herbs, small shrimp, chopped sweet red peppers and garlic sauteed in olive oil and served it over linguini.

If you want to sprinkle grated cheese on top, Piave is also a good choice because it's very flavorful so only a small amount gives a lot of flavor.

Goat cheese melts wonderfully well and becomes saucy in the pan, but I don't know if you'll save many calories. I can buy Montrachet or Chevre in a little tube - maybe 4 or 5 oz. - in all of my local groceries. A little goes a long way.

I'm sure that if the recipe calls for goat cheese, it means plain. There are all kinds of flavors for spreading on crackers and using in various recipes, but I'd start with plain.

Goat cheese can be very rich! I'm not sure that it'll be any lighter than a cream sauce. When they say "goat cheese" in a generic fashion they mean chevre, which is the kind in the celo tube, though there is also goat brie, goat gouda, etc.

I have some Redwood Hill Farm goat cheese sitting right here with the remains of my breakfast. It's excellent. 60 calories in 2 Tbsp., which is about the same as light cream.

Frankly, I think chevre is too tangy to substitute for a cream sauce as well. Ruthana's suggestions sound like a better way to go.

I get my goat's cheese at Costco. Since that store isn't known for having multiple choices of similar products, I always refer to it rather generically. I get the round logs, and also a Chevrita, which is sort of like Brie.

Thanks a lot for the info. So goat cheese isn't lighter - poo:) Would I save on the amount of cheese I put in a cream sauce though? I mean between the half and half AND all the cheese - seems I could cut back on the extra parm etc. But if its too tangy....hm.

Ruthanna - that sounds great! I do like asparagus and shallots both. Any other veggies this works well with? Or maybe better veggies it doesn't - I'm not really that savvy:)

Here is a recipe for one of our favorite "salads."

Warm spinach or Romaine salad for two

Bag of baby spiniach or romaine, well washed and dried, with a little water clinging to the leaves
1/2 tube of Chevre, plain
Extra virgin Olive Oil - 2-3 Tbs
garlic salt
Cherry tomatoes, halved
Kalamata olives, pitted
Red onion, sliced thin

In the largest pan you have, heat the olive oil, add the spinach or romaine and saute until it's wilted. Lower the heat and add the cheese, swirling around the pan until it melts. Add the remaining vegetables, sprinkle with garlic salt and a little more olive oil, serve warm with good crusty bread.

This recipe takes less than 10 minutes and is always a huge success for me.

There are all kinds of vegetables you can puree to use as a thickener. Try some roots too. You could use whatever's going limp (carrots, celery, etc.) and a celery root for a very flavorful base. Braise them and puree, then add some sauteed chopped vegetables, sausage, or whatever you like.

If you really want a cream style sauce, especially with cheese, you can make a base with 2% fat milk or non-fat evaporated milk and olive oil instead of half-and-half and butter. It doesn't have that rich mouth feel so you can't think substitution. Until you get used to it, it's better to make different flavors than you're used to, so it'll be enjoying the new sauce rather than making the old one "wrong". With less fat, you have to be more careful making your roux, and especially making sure it's well proportioned with the milk, before you start adding other things, so you'll be sure it'll bind. I'd start with the canned evaporated milk (NOT condensed). Use something tastier than parm. At least romano or asiago.

One of best ways to cut calories, however, is to check portions. A lot of American pasta has almost more sauce than pasta! If you're craving something rich, have a little something rich. But for pasta itself, you only need enough sauce to coat the noodles, not lots of sauce falling off. Fat carries a lot of flavor, so substitute flavorful items, like pepper, pungent herbs, and strong wines, like Marsala, Port and Madeira. One of my favorite sauces, in fact, is made as above, with milk and a roux, romano, Marsala and pepper. And whatever else, but that's the base.

Thank you, plllog. I agree that there are lots of more exciting ways to cut fat and calories in pasta dishes other than trying to make the previously enjoyed butter, cheese and cream-laden ones with ingredient substitutions.

Vegetable purees I particularly like are celery, roasted red pepper and sugar snap pea.

Pasta with roasted vegetables is another idea. Here's one that uses roasted garlic as a sauce.

FUSILLI WITH SHRIMP AND ROASTED VEGETABLES Â 4 servings

12 plum tomatoes, cores and quartered lengthwise
2 Tbsp. olive oil
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 small head garlic
1 lb. thin asparagus, trimmed and cut into 2-inch lengths
1 lb, large shrimp, peeled and deveined
3/4 lb. corkscrew pasta, such as fusilli or rotini
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil or 1 tsp. dried
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh thyme or 1 tsp. dried

Set rack in lower third of oven. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a large roasting pan, toss the tomatoes with 1 Tbsp. of the olive oil and a generous grinding of pepper. Slice the top 1/2 inch off the garlic head and discard; pull off any loose papery skin. Wrap the garlic in tin foil and add to the roasting pan.

Roast for 20 to 30 minutes, without stirring, or until the tomatoes are wrinkled and just begin to brown. Scatter the asparagus and shrimp over the tomatoes and roast for 10 minutes more, or until the shrimp are curled and the asparagus is tender. Remove the garlic from the pan, unwrap, and let cool for 5 minutes. Remove roasting pan from oven and cover to keep warm.

Meanwhile, cook pasta. While the pasta is cooking, separate the garlic cloves and squeeze out soft pulp. Mash to a paste.

Drain the pasta and return to the pot. Add the remaining 1 Tbs. of oil, mashed garlic, lemon juice, herbs and salt & pepper, tossing to evenly coat the pasta with the seasonings. Transfer the pasta to the roasting pan and toss gently to combine, making sure to scrape up any bits that have stuck to the pan.

Notes: You may want to use a smaller amount of herbs the first time you make this. I have used rosemary and basil, and oregano and thyme combinations too. A handful of quartered crimini mushrooms tossed with a little olive oil and added to the roasting pan about 5 minutes before the shrimp are a nice addition.

I'd also recommend checking if your library has any of the "Eating Well..." series of cookbooks. They have some interesting and satisfying recipes for healthier eating.

Check out the cream cheese thread where I give my recipe for pasta with beans and a tomato cream sauce. It is a very full flavored tomato sauce with some neufatchel cheese added. Pureed beans also gives a creamy texture to sauces. But NOT the same flavor as the cream sauces. One thing that helps is to just use much less sauce, because like Ruthanna says, I think Americans WAY oversauce their pasta. Actually, we way overdo it with almost every sauce. Actually, we way overdo it with almost everyTHING, lol!

The secret to using less cheese in pasta sauce is as Ruthanna says, use a VERY full flavored cheese and use much less of it. Same goes with goat cheese. Those "creamy" goat cheeses are wonderful, but high in calories. You might be able to get away with using a tangy goat feta in small quantities, but I haven't commonly found on in ye olde average grocery that I like. Most goat cheese that I have found is very mild, so doesn't help with your dilemma.