A Customizable Fettuccine Alfredo Recipe, Ready In Only 30 Minutes (2024)

FAQs

How do you make Alfredo more interesting? ›

Heartier herbs like thyme or oregano can be added in to simmer with the sauce. Add delicate herbs like parsley, basil, or chervil at the end to maintain their delicate, aromatic flavor. Quick tip: Swirl in a bit of leftover pesto to add another herbaceous twist to your Alfredo sauce.

Seasonings, spices, and fresh herbs: this is definitely a great way to give your Alfredo sauce a more personal flavor. The most obvious choice is black pepper, but you can also add parsley and thyme, or dried herbs like oregano.

National Fettuccine Alfredo Day is observed annually on February 7th. Alfredo di Lelio, an Italian restaurateur, created Fettuccine Alfredo in 1908. After his wife had given birth to their first son that year, she did not have an appetite. To help encourage her to eat, he created a dish of noodles, cheese and butter.

Extra seasonings and spices will go a long way in adding flavor to a boring jar of sauce. Some of my personal favorites include salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, dried basil, oregano, onion powder or seasoned salt. Start with small amounts (1/2 teaspoon at a time) and add as needed, in order to avoid over-spicing.

Add Cheese

The key ingredient in Alfredo sauce is cheese—generally Parmigiano Reggiano—and lots of it. To thicken Alfredo sauce, simply add more cheese than the amount called for in a recipe until you achieve the consistency you want.

Stir in big handfuls of spinach, Kale mushrooms, zucchini, onions, broccoli, spinach, squash, or grape tomatoes after the pasta is cooked. You can also substitute zucchini (zoodles) for the pasta.

The Alfredo sauce will harden into a thick paste once it cools in the fridge, but give it a few minutes of gentle heat on the stovetop or in the microwave, and it will once again become silky and creamy. If you see a few little beads of fat starting to form, just whisk vigorously to blend them back in.

Reasons are multiple: the pasta itself, which is usually overcooked; the sauce, an inventive combination of cream and pretty much anything from broccoli, mushroom and peas to shrimp and chicken; and the fact that most Italians have never even heard of it!

Fettuccine Alfredo, minus the spectacle, has now become ubiquitous in Italian-style restaurants outside Italy, although in Italy this dish is usually called simply "fettuccine al burro".

What makes fettuccine Alfredo so good? ›

The original fettuccine Alfredo

The real Alfredo sauce is delicious because of its simplicity. The only ingredients are butter, Parmesan cheese and pepper. That's it! You'll find neither heavy cream nor parsley in the original recipe.

There are dozens of variations of fettuccine Alfredo out there. You could sprinkle in fresh herbs and lemon zest or juice to cut the richness of the cream. You could also top servings with cooked shrimp or chicken for some protein, or toss in a vegetable like cooked asparagus!

This recipe for homemade alfredo sauce uses $4.33 worth of ingredients and makes 9.5 ounces, which is also roughly 46 cents per ounce. This means homemade alfredo sauce costs about the same as high quality jarred sauces, but tastes even better.

If you don't have sauce in the house, grilled, stir-fried or baked veggies can add lots of flavor and texture. Butternut or acorn squash, zucchini, bell peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, and onion are all great options to add to a pasta dish, along with some minced garlic, olive oil, and herbs.