Basil Cream Sauce

Here's a sauce I made for some butter-poached shrimp for the recent wine dinner extravaganza. It comes from the fine folks at Schramsberg; they suggested it over chicken with penne pasta. I just switched the protein around. It's quite versatile...would be good on fish, veggies or just plain ol' pasta.

Note: I diced the vegetables quite finely since the sauce was going on a hoity-toity appetizer plate (so much so that my sister wondered who had chopped things up so tiny), but a rough dice is fine.

Basil Cream Sauce
Makes about three cups.

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
4 cloves garlic, chopped
6 green onions, sliced (reserve 1/4 green ends for garnish)
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
3 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup white wine (or sparkling)
Juice from 1/2 a lemon
3/4 cup chicken stock
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped
1/2 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped

Add the olive oil and butter to a pan and heat over medium heat. Add the chopped green onions, garlic and diced red bell pepper and sauté 3 minutes.

Stir in the flour and cook 2 minutes.

Whisk in the wine and cook 1 minute.

Whisk lemon juice, chicken broth and cream into the sauce. Cook and let thicken slightly, about 3 minutes.

Stir in the chopped basil and parsley.