At a local Italian restaurant their alfredo sauce is fairly thin and tastes strongly of cream. I am certain they don’t use starchy thickeners like in a commercial alfredo - it does not have that thick viscous texture. They toss the pasta several times at the table before serving (otherwise all the sauce would pool at the bottom.)
I know I’m not describing it well but it’s actually really lovely. It’s lighter yet richer than commercial alfredo. Is this ringing a recipe bell for anyone?
I just bought some fresh fettucine at the farmer’s market – need answer by dinnertime.
While the pasta water is heating and then while the pasta is cooking, I put the pasta platter on top of the pot of water to heat. Into the platter I put a big pat of butter and some heavy cream and a finely minced clove of garlic. Let the butter melt and the garlic stew in the hot cream mixture.
When your pasta is drained, turn it into the hot platter with the cream, and toss it, adding generous handfuls of finely grated fresh parmagiano reggiano. Yes, the snooty real stuff, not the green can stuff. It will look soupy at first, but as you toss it, it’ll start thickening up as the pasta starch gets into the sauce and the sauce is absorbed a bit by the pasta. Add a generous quantity of fresh cracked pepper, too, so that it’s liberally flecked with black specks.
Yum. I haven’t made this in awhile. I think I’ll have to do so this weekend. It’s especially good with fresh homemade fettucine.
teela brown’s recipe is essentially classic alfredo, only she does it in a hot bowl instead of in a skillet. I bet that’d work just great!
The skillet method is as follows:
1 pound pasta (cooked)
1 cup heavy cream
4 T. butter
1 cup shredded parmesan (or more, to taste)
salt & pepper
a sprinkling of nutmeg
Put butter in a large skillet, melt. Add cream, allow to come to a slow simmer (you really just want it hot). Add salt & pepper, a pinch of nutmeg. Add the cooked noodles to the skillet, sprinkle the parmesan over the top. Stir until the parmesan melts.
You can add garlic if you want, but it’s not in the classic recipe.
You can also use sour cream instead of regular cream. Less calories and more flavor. Don’t use light sour cream as that contains the thickeners you are trying to avoid.
I’ll second the sour cream suggestion. I got in the habit of adding a dollop of cream cheese, the tang really helps balance out the heaviness of the cream and butter. If you want decadence add creme fraise (soured cream).
Just always go with adding cream, butter, cheese and pepper. The rest seems to work itself out. I also add garlic, because I like garlic. But it’s even BETTER with leek…
Just wanted to follow up - it was DELISH. Exactly on the mark!! I thought the sauce wouldn’t thicken but it absolutely did, almost like magic, from the melting cheese and starch off the noodles, just like teela brown said.