Fettuccine Alfredo
February 12th, 2012Along with Clams Casino, Caesar Salad, and Pasta Primavera, Fettuccine Alfredo is one of the few Almost Italian favorites first created to please privileged diners at the top of society. These restaurant divertimenti stand apart from the far greater number of dishes that evolved in the home kitchens of immigrants working their way up America’s economic ladder.
But say “Pasta al burro e parmigiano” to most Americans and you’ll get the same blank stares you’d receive from your waiter in Italy were you to order Fettuccine all’ Alfredo.
Fettuccine Alfredo
Copyright © 2012, Skip Lombardi
A soothing dish of egg pasta with nothing more than melted butter and Parmesan cheese is all that Roman restaurateur Alfredo di Lelio prepared for his pregnant wife when she was feeling queasy.
Nonetheless, that comfort food gained fame beyond all imagining. As the story goes, after silent screen stars Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford enjoyed it on their honeymoon, they told all of Hollywood about the delicacy they’d discovered in the Eternal City.
What, no cream? No flour-thickened white sauce? No broccoli, asparagus, artichoke hearts, chicken, turkey, shrimp, crab, or mushrooms “alfredo”? So how did all our supermarket shelves come to be stocked with jars of Alfredo sauce bearing the names of venerable Italian importers?
We want to break the news gently, especially since we’re so close to Valentine’s Day, a time of indulgence for which this preparation is especially appropriate. But romance aside, we think our readers want the truth: Fettuccine Alfredo, as written on most menus, though born in Rome, emigrated in infancy. While certainly not a swarthy southern Italian, any of Alfredo’s claims to northern Italian ancestry via parmigiano are tenuous. The fact is that Alfredo grew up to be Almost Italian, right here in America. We think of him as both a Wise Guy and a suave, sexier version of macaroni-and-cheese. And, as is often the case, his descendants, like so many children of immigrants, are little hesitant to talk about their own hazy origins.
No Roman would be able to conceive, let alone countenance, offspring like “Scallops Alfredo” or “chicken tortellini in light Alfredo sauce.” Meanwhile, fusionists have devised the ultimate antithesis of Signor di Lelio’s original idea: Jalapeno Alfredo Sauce.
The classic Roman dish, though richly silky, and certainly not dry, has no “sauce” at all. However, we think we have a clue to how the idea of “sauce” crept into American versions of the dish. In the ground-breaking and wildly popular Time-Life series, Foods of the World, The Cooking of Italy (1968), written by the authoritative Waverly Root, contained adaptations for American readers. Fettuccine al Burro begins with instructions to beat softened butter with a few spoonfuls of cream and grated cheese and to set aside “the sauce.” The recipe finishes with “the creamed butter and cheese mixture” being tossed with the hot fettuccine. But the word “sauce,” perhaps no more than a casual copy-editor’s choice, continues to cling to collective memory.
Fettuccine Alfredo
Copyright © 2012, Skip Lombardi
Getting back to the original inspiration and Valentine’s Day, let’s remember that for Signor di Lelio, it was all about cooking from the heart to make just a little dish of pasta for a beloved mama-to-be. So, we urge you to spend February 14th with someone you cherish and to share something nobile e semplice: freshly made pasta. Making your own takes a little extra time, but it’s one labor of love that’s really worth the trouble.
Whether or not you roll your own, we hope you’ll treat some fettuccine ribbons to the elegantly restrained Roman combination of butter and cheese, or else, adorn your pasta with caviar, as in our recipe for Pasta con Caviale.
Pasta all’ Alfredo
(Pasta with Butter and Parmesan)
Ingredients:
Freshly made fettuccine, enough for 2 servings (see recipe below)
OR 8 ounces dry pasta all’uovo (egg fettuccine)
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (omit unless freshly grated)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter (the best quality you can buy)
6 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan
1/4 cup light cream or half-and-half *(you may need less)
Freshly ground black pepper, to finish
Preparation:
If using dried, commercially-made fettuccine, cook according to the package directions in boiling, salted water until al dente.
If using fresh pasta (purchased or your own production), be especially attentive and have everything ready, because the pasta will cook very quickly.
Cut the butter into small cubes and set aside. Reserve both the butter and cream at room temperature.
To cook fresh fettuccine:
Bring a large pot (at least 4 quarts) of water to the boil. Stir 1 tablespoon salt into the pot and add the fresh fettuccine in handfuls. Stir gently with a wooden spoon or chopstick to separate the pasta strands. The fettuccine will float to the top as they cook. After 90 seconds, test one of the strands. It should be chewy, but cooked through. Cook the pasta for no more than 3 minutes.
Drain the pasta in a colander and reserve 1/2 cup of the starchy pasta water from the bottom of the pot. Immediately toss the butter and grated nutmeg into the pot along with the drained pasta.
With tongs, carefully lift and turn the pasta, sprinkling in all but 2 tablespoons of the grated Parmesan as you proceed. The strands should be evenly coated with melted butter and cheese. Sprinkle in a little of the cream and/or starchy cooking water if the pasta seems too sticky, but keep in mind that this dish is quite dry and has only whatever “sauce” is created by the butter, cheese, and a few spoonfuls of the cream and pasta water.
Divide the pasta on two warmed plates. Sprinkle each with a tablespoon of the cheese and grate a little black pepper over each. Enjoy immediately with a well-chilled, dry white wine and green salad.
Serves 2.
Egg Pasta
Pasta all’ uovo
The basic rule to keep in mind is that for each portion, you’ll need 1 egg and approximately 1 cup of flour and a pinch or two of salt. Precise measures are useless as the size of the egg and humidity are also factors. If you scale up the recipe, use a little less salt per portion.
For 2 portions of pasta:
2 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon olive oil (this makes the dough more pliable)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups (approximately) unbleached, all-purpose flour
A few drops of water, as necessary
Preparation:
In the bowl of a food processor, combine the eggs, oil, and salt. Pulse 4-5 times for 1 second per pulse.
Remove the lid of the bowl and add half the flour. Replace the lid and pulse 6 times—again at 1 second per pulse—or until the mixture is grainy.
Curl a clean sheet of paper (copy paper is fine) to make a funnel. Place that into the top of the feed tube. Gradually pour another 3/4 cup flour into the bowl as the motor runs. The dough will be very stiff. Continue to add flour by the spoonful until the dough will absorb no more flour.
Turn off the processor and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Pinch off a bean-sized bit of dough; it should have the softness of the fleshy part of your palm. If the dough remains sticky, add a little more flour and pulse until it is incorporated. If the dough is crumbly and will not stick together, add a few droplets of water and pulse.
The dough should pull away from the sides of the processor bowl into a large lump.
Remove the dough, including any bits clinging to the bowl. Form the dough into a ball. On a board or cloth dusted with a little flour, knead the dough: press and push it away from you with the heels of your hands. Add a little more flour if the dough seems sticky. Knead for at least 5 minutes. Enclose the dough in a plastic bag and allow it to rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes.
We think that texture is everything in this dish, so we recommend using the basic, hand-cranked macchinetta, a pasta machine, to achieve uniformly thin pasta. If you roll out the dough with a rolling pin, you won’t be able to roll it as thinly, and your pasta will be chewier and more rustica. (However, you’ll still have what Skip’s mother would call “a nice dish of pasta.”)
Rolling out the Fettuccine
Copyright © 2012, Skip Lombardi
If you use a pasta machine…
Follow the manufacturer’s directions—rolling through the settings 1 to 5 before you feed the dough through the cutting attachment for fettuccine, which will yield strips about 3/8 inch wide.
Regardless of how you roll your dough…
Spread a clean cloth on a level surface. Lay out the cut fettuccine strips to dry on the cloth; try to keep them from touching. (Skip’s grandmother spread hers out in the middle of her bed.) Although you can cook the pasta immediately, the fettuccine will be easier to handle if you allow them to air-dry for at least 1 hour before you start to cook.
