Fettuccine alfredo is a great way to understand the Italian way with pasta. Pasta recipes fall into 2 categories: a prepared sauce goes over pasta or, as in alfredo, the sauce is prepared with the pasta in the pan. With alfredo, the sauce is melted butter, cream and parmesan cheese, that’s it. You can mix them all together with fettuccine in a skillet until noodles have absorbed the cream. Interestingly, as pure Italian as this may seem, it isn’t a dish of long tradition. Roman restauranteur Alfredo de Lilio created it in the 1920’s. As the story goes, he first made the pasta for movie stars Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. From “The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper by Lynne Rosetto Kasper & Sally Swift”
INGREDIENTS
1 lb dry imported fettuccine; cooked
6 tbsp butter
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1-1/2 – 2 cups parmesan cheese, grated
DIRECTIONS
1. Melt butter, taking care not to let it colour. Set aside pan until pasta is cooked.
2. When pasta is draining, reheat butter and turn pasta and cream into pan; toss to thoroughly coat noodles. Continue to toss pasta for 2-3 mins so cream can absorb into pasta. There should be very little cream in the bottom of the pan.
3. Toss in cheese, starting with 1-1/2 c. and adding more to taste; toss 20 seconds. Season to taste; serve hot.
NOTES:
*Makes 3-4 as a main dish and 6-8 as a side dish
CATEGORIES:
| Dish Main Dish | Cooking Method Sauteed |
| Main Ingredient Pasta | Prep Time less than 15 minutes |
| Cooking Time less than 15 minutes | |
| Features Vegetarian | |