Alfredo Sauce – One of our favorite indulgences is super rich and creamy fettuccine Alfredo. This is truly a treat whenever we do make it.
Serving fettuccine with butter and cheese was first mentioned in a 15th-century recipe for maccaroni romaneschi (“Roman pasta”) by Martino da Como, a northern Italian cook active in Rome; the recipe calls for cooking the pasta in broth or water and adding butter, “good cheese” (the variety is not specified) and “sweet spices”.
Modern fettuccine Alfredo was invented by Alfredo Di Lelio in Rome. According to family accounts, in 1892 Alfredo Di Lelio began to work in a restaurant that was located in piazza Rosa and run by his mother Angelina. Di Lelio invented “fettuccine al triplo burro” (later named “fettuccine all ‘Alfredo” or “fettuccine Alfredo”) in 1907 or 1908 in an effort to entice his wife, Ines, to eat after giving birth to their first child Armando. Alfredo added extra butter or triplo burro to the fettuccine when mixing it together for her. Piazza Rosa disappeared in 1910 following the construction of the Galleria Colonna/Sordi, and the restaurant was forced to close. Di Lelio later opened his own restaurant, Alfredo alla Scrofa, then called “Alfredo”, in 1914 on the via della Scrofa in central Rome.
Try some of our other Italian dishes
Homemade Alfredo Sauce
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1 tbsp garlic minced
- 1 1/2 tbsp flour
- 3/4 cup milk
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- 1 1/2 cups shredded parmesan cheese
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- sea salt to taste
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, melt the butter.
- Add the fresh garlic and saute until the garlic is lightly browned.
- Add a dash of salt and fresh ground pepper and stir.
- Sprinkle the flour over the butter/garlic mixture and stir around. You want to use enough flour to soak up the butter, but not so much that you end up with a super heavy dough. The goal here is to create roux.
- Cook this mixture for about 4 minutes, stirring consistently to keep it from burning. This will help remove that "raw" taste that the flour will have. You want the flour to be very lightly browned.
- After you've cooked the flour, pour the cream and milk in and use a whisk vigorously until all the clumps of flour are gone and the mixture starts to thicken.
- Slowly start adding the shredded Parmesan, while continuing to whisk. Don't stop whisking or else you'll end up with clumpy sauce. This is the slowest part of the making this sauce. Add the cheese little by little until it's all incorporated.
- Remove from heat and taste for salt and pepper. Adjust as needed.
- This sauce can be refrigerated and reheated. I have never frozen it and reheated it, but I think it would probably do fine. To reheat, slowly heat over low heat while whisking. You may need to add a little milk or cream in order to get it to the right consistency. Careful not to heat it too fast.
