Fettuccini Alfredo

Thursday night - date night - why not?  Yesterday was Valentine's eve, eve, eve, eve so obviously, we went out to celebrate.  😅 Spending more than 30 Valentine's days together has taught us that it's not worth fighting the restaurant crowds on the 14th of February.  🤷🏻‍♀️ Especially in our little town where there's a limited number of restaurants that are even open on Monday nights.  

My better half planned our romantic Valentine outing for February 10th and it was amazing.  Dinner at an Italian restaurant AND tickets to see Andrea Bocelli.  😮 This guy knows me well. 🍝🎤   I love Italian food and Italian singer Andrea Bocelli - oh, and I love him too. 😅

I've been lucky enough to travel to Italy, twice in my life, and I wasn't shy about eating all of the pasta I could get my hands on while I was there. 😂There's something about twirling spaghetti on a fork, while sitting at a small table on the edge of the Grand Canal that just makes it taste better.  I say all this to let you know that THAT is my standard for pasta now.  Let's just say that the bar has been set and it's high. 🇮🇹

Needless to day, it's a challenge for me to eat pasta and NOT judge it against the Italian standard. 😬 And I feel like it's worth pointing out that the meals that I order at a restaurant and the pasta that I make at home are both held to the same standard. I don't cut myself any slack when it comes to pasta.

Pasta dishes with simple sauces reined supreme in the tiny Italian cafes that we were fortunate enough to visit.  Fettuccini alfredo made with just 4 simple ingredients seemed like the perfect way to replicate that Italian pasta, at home.  The key is to find the very best cheese, butter and pasta that you can find.  Skimping on any of them will most certainly affect the quality of your dish.  

Fettuccini Alfredo
8 Tablespoons European butter (Plugra or Kerrygold)
6 ounces Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, cut into 1/2" chunks (Don't buy shredded)
18 ounces fresh fettuccini
​1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Slice butter into 1/2" slices.

Layer butter slices along bottom and sides of a large bowl.   Let soften.

Process cheese in food processor until finely ground.  Should be 1 1/2 cups.

Bring 2 quarts water to a boil.  Add salt and pasta and cook 2 minutes. 

Use tongs to transfer pasta directly to butter lined bowl.  Toss until butter is melted. 

Add 1/2 cup pasta water and toss until absorbed. 

Add 1 cup of cheese, 1/3 cup at a time.

Toss in 1/2-1 cup additional pasta water until sauce clings to pasta.

Let stand 2 minutes to allow sauce to thicken.  Add additional water if needed.  Season with salt.  

Divide among serving bowls and serve with remaining cheese. 

I've made this a couple different times - once with homemade pasta and once with a dried fettuccini.  Obviously, it took waaaay longer to make homemade noodles and after all that work, we all preferred this simple Alfredo sauce served with dried fettuccini noodles anyway.  You will see pictures of both fettuccini Alfredo in this post so you can decided for yourself which one looks better to you.  

Caio!

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