"Authentic" Fettuccine Alfredo

[dragnlaw]

Pasta Water Tip

don't remember from which TV chef I got this -

so you don't forget to save some pasta water -

while you are waiting for your pasta to cook...

put a (heat safe) bowl or measuring cup directly under your colander/sieve in the sink.

So when you drain your pasta - - -

presto, bingo you have your water!

works for me!

 

[Andy M.]

America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Country puts a measuring cup in a big strainer and just pours the water and pasta into the strainer. You end up with drained pasta and a cup of pasta water.

 

[dragnlaw]

Thanks Andy, perhaps that is where I got it from, I still don't remember. But I do know if I leave the cup inside the strainer a lot of the pasta falls into the cup as well and I have to fish it out.

 

[CraigC]

Any of you folks use a pasta pot that has a basket/strainer? With some straight, thin pasta you may loose a little through the strainer holes, but you won't loose much. You will have a whole pot of pasta water left to take out as much as you like at your leisure.

 

[taxlady]

The recipe I use for fettuccine Alfredo says to take the pasta out of the pot with tongs and drop it into the butter (or butter and cream if using that version) so you get some of the water clinging to the pasta. The recipe specifies not to drain the pasta. That method also leaves an entire pot of pasta water.

 

[GotGarlic]

The recipe I use for fettuccine Alfredo says to take the pasta out of the pot with tongs and drop it into the butter (or butter and cream if using that version) so you get some of the water clinging to the pasta. The recipe specifies not to drain the pasta. That method also leaves an entire pot of pasta water.

That's what I do, with all kinds of pasta.

I have a large stockpot and a smaller stainless steel Dutch oven that have strainer baskets, but it takes so much water to fill them enough to make pasta that I never use them.

 

[dragnlaw]

A lot of chefs when doing 'Italian' pasta, remove the pasta from the water with tongs or a spider like basket. Ergo you have all your pasta water to hand. Perhaps it is a North American thing to 'drain'?

 

[dcgator]

Alfredo is not an Italian invention. You will never find it anywhere in a restaurant in Italy except for touristy places that cater to Americans. Same with spaghetti and meat balls. That's another American invention. Having said that cook and eat what you like!

 

[Andy M.]

Actually, Alfredo's origin is fairly well documented as a restaurant in Rome by a chef named Alfredo. Feel free to investigate.

 

[Andy M.]

Spaghetti and meatballs are also both Italian. The idea of serving them together is an American one.

 

[taxlady]

Spaghetti and meatballs are also both Italian. The idea of serving them together is an American one.

True

 

[di reston]

Fettucine all'Alfredo is 100% an Italian recipe, and well documented. The original doesn't, however, have cream in it. Savoury recipes that include cream are totally anathema to southern Italians. The dish was the creation of a well known Roman restaurateur whose restaurant was in Via della Strofa, Rome, a restaurant that attracted many famous Hollywood actors and other glitterati in the Dolce Vita era. Rome was a wonderful place then, thronging with the famous, the wealthy and the intellectuals who mingled in places like Alfredo's. It was an amazing place to be, then - and I speak from experience - and a place that left a lasting impression. I've never been anywhare like it since.

di reston


Enough is never as good as a feast Oscar Wilde

 

[CarolPa]

Any of you folks use a pasta pot that has a basket/strainer? With some straight, thin pasta you may loose a little through the strainer holes, but you won't loose much. You will have a whole pot of pasta water left to take out as much as you like at your leisure.

I have one of these, and I use it when I make chicken soup. I just lift out the strainer than contains the chicken, bones, vegetables, etc, and just leaves the broth in the pot.