Fettucine Alfredo alla Romana
Roman-style Fettucine Alfredo
Fetuccine Alfredo was created by Roman chef Alfredo Di Lelio at the turn of the 20th century. It's a simple dish of just fettuccine, butter and Parmesan cheese, and versions of this have existed in Italy at least since the 15th century. Perhaps what distinguishes this version is the specification of young Parmigiano-Reggiano as the preferred cheese and the method of adding a little pasta water to create a cheese sauce. Unlike the American version, the original recipe does not have cream in it.
I've made pasta with butter and Parmesan many times for my kids, but this time I figured I'd use slightly elevated ingredients. I used Giovanni Rana refrigerated fettuccine, as it's a brand that gets good reviews, Kerrygold Butter, as you can't find Italian butter at American supermarkets and Kerrygold is consistently ranked as one of the best butters and Boar's Head Parmigiano-Reggiano, because my supermarket only carries two Italian-made parmigiano-reggianos and this one gets good reviews. Note that Alfredo himself recommended "young" Parmigiano cheese, which is usually thought to mean cheese aged less than 18 months, and the Boar's Head one aged more than 24 months. Despite this, I thought the cheese had a soft, subtle flavor - but my palate is used to American parmesan. I'm sure this dish is far better with homemade pasta and a better Parmesan cheese, but my days of searching all over town for ingredients are over.
Despite the few ingredients, there are variations on recipe for fettuccine alfredo. Some have you melt the butter on a pan, then add and melt the cheese and follow with the pasa and pasta water. I decided to go for the "cold" version because I didn't want to have to dirty another pan. It was the right call, the butter and cheese melted and emulsified beautifully onto the pasta.
The original recipe calls for twice as much butter and more cheese. I followed a recipe that had lowered these proportions and it was the right call. The pasta definitely didn't need any more butter - indeed, I could have reduced it a little bit -, and there was enough cheese even without adding extra at the table. That might be because the Parmesan I used was older, however.
In all, it was a good dish and everyone was happy. They thought it was better than other pasta with Parmesan dishes they'd had in the past.
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Roman-style Fettucine Alfredo
Ingredients
- 6 oz Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, finely grated and divided
- 8 oz European-style butter, cut into small cubes
- kosher salt
- 1 lb fresh fettuccine pasta
Directions
Place 4 oz of the grated Parmigiano cheese in a large bowl. Sprinkle with butter cubes and set aside.
Boil the pasta in salted water. Transfer pasta to the bowl with the cheese, reserving the pasta water and toss. Add 1/4 cup of pasta butter, and continue tossing, until the cheese and butter melt and combine into a sauce. Serve with remaining Parmigiano cheese on the side.
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Adapted from Daniel Gritzer's recipe at Serious Eats
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