Alfredo sauce: the recipe of the Italian spirit

The fettuccine with Alfredo sauce, better known as double-butter blondes, are a typical dish of the Italian cuisine. Certainly most Italians do not know about it. Moreover, despite being misunderstood by Italians, it reflects the Italian spirit, so recognized in the world. The fettuccine with Alfredo sauce is an artistic dish that contains a slice of Italian history and its guests.

It looks like a “harmless” dish due to its simplicity, but also because it is so simple in reality (non capisco il senso della frase) it is extremely difficult. It is based on the union of three delicious ingredients: fettuccine, butter and parmesan. The real magic of this dish lies in the creaming: thanks to the help of a fork and a spoon and a rotary movement from the bottom upwards, the ingredients blend together creating a very sweet cream.

Today the paternity of this dish is challenged by two Roman places: Alfredo alla Scrofa (via della Scrofa 104 / a) and Il vero Alfredo (Piazza Augusto Imperatore 30). Let’s know better the story about this dish.

Alfredo sauce: a bit of history

The recipe was invented in 1914 by Alfredo, owner of a restaurant in Via della Scrofa in Rome, with the intention of reinvigorating his wife Ines, weakened by the fatigue of pregnancy and childbirth: she liked the dish so much that she suggested to her husband to include it in the menu. From that day this dish became the best skill of the restaurant!

Also, the true consecration of the fettuccine Alfredo was when Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, two famous actors of Hollywood silent films, tasted this pasta during their honeymoon in Rome. They were extremely enthusiastic, so much that they donated two gold cutleries, spoon and fork to Alfredo in gratitude, all of them engraved with the dedication “To Alfredo the King of Noodles”. From that moment, the two cutleries were granted by the landlord to all the most illustrious guests whom the owner had the honor to serve the Maestosissime Fettuccine, such as Walt Disney, Onassis, Kennedy, Hitchcock, Sophia Loren, Frank Sinatra, Ginger Rogers, etc … every star signed himself in the book of signatures (to date there are over 50). Thanks to these stars that the dish was successful overseas and that Alfredo became the “king of fettuccine” for everyone. Alfredo had a very scenic technique for making cream (creaming): it almost seemed like he was dancing around fettuccine. It was an unforgettable experience for customers that helped fuel the fortune of this dish.

During the wars, Alfredo left the restaurant to his son Armando, known as Alfredo II, who continued to welcome customers with a smile and the famous mustache “Umberto”, also a symbol of Alfredo.

Alfredo sauce: the recipe

Ingredients 

 

500 g fettuccine

200 g parmesan

125 g butter

 

Preparing time 20 min

Cooking time 2/3 min

Serves 4

 

Directions

First of all, you have to prepare the Fettuccine. Then, put the water in a saucepan to boil. Once it reaches boiling, pour the fresh fettuccine. The pasta is cooked in 2 or 3 minutes. The, put the fettuccine in a pan and prepare the Alfredo sauce, turning off the fire. Put butter and a ladle of the pasta cooking water. Mix everything and then add the grated Parmesan and a ladle of cooking water. Continue stirring to mix the pasta with the sauce.

Enjoy your Fettuccine with Alfredo Sauce!