Alfredo Sauce
Fettuccine Alfredo or "fettuccine all’Alfredo" is a dish made with fettuccine pasta combined with a sauce made from Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and butter. The dish was named after Alfredo Di Lelio who opened a restaurant in Rome in 1914 and served “fettuccine all’Alfredo. Fettuccine Alfredo is an exaggerated variation of "pasta al burro" or pasta with butter--a dish that Italians understand better as something that would be cooked at home for simplicity and comfort. The dish became popularized in the United States and through commercialization the recipe has evolved to include heavy cream and other ingredients.
Total Time
15 minutes
Servings
4
8 oz (2 sticks / 230 g) of butter, unsalted and softened to room temperature
½ pound (230 g) Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (aged 24 months), grated
Salt
1 pound (450 g) fettuccine egg noodles
Whisk together the butter and grated Parmesan-Reggiano cheese until it is creamy. Both ingredients combined should be on the thick side.
Put water to boil in a large pot and cook the noodles until al dente.
Drain the noodles and reserve ½ cup of liquid to emulsify your sauce.
Put noodles back in the warm pot and stir in the butter and cheese mixture with vigorous turning motion while adding pasta water until the noodles are glistening and smooth.
Add salt to taste.
Serve immediately.
- •Alfredo Di Lelio, for whom the dish is named, was a Roman innkeeper. Between the 1910s and the 1950s he owned a popular restaurant named Alfredo all'Augusteo in Piazza Augusto Imperatore in the center of the city. The restaurant, now called "Il Vero Alfredo - Alfredo di Roma", is run by the granddaughter of Alfredo Di Lelio, Ines Di Lelio.
- •The original name of the dish, created in 1914, was Fettuccine al triplo burro (Fettuccine with triple butter).
- •Fettuccine is the traditional pasta for Alfredo and its variations because the broad noodles provide just the right platform for the butter fat and cheese.
- •Fresh egg pasta is greatly preferred by some over dried pasta for cream and cheese sauces because the sauce sometimes clings more readily to fresh pasta than it does to dried.