Fettuccini Alfredo

I feel like several people have asked about this recipe, and I made it again recently and have a picture of the result so I thought I'd post it here. This is a very basic recipe that I first learned on a camping trip with friends, on an island in Boston Harbor in 1991. Someone made it for one of our evening meals, and I said "PLEASE, teach me how to make this!" I think you will like it too.

I'll tell you how I made the dish in the picture, and then in the notes I'll talk about some other variations I've tried. This recipe is made for playing with it and creating your own dishes. Have fun!

First thing to do is prepare to cook 8 oz of pasta, in this example I used fusilli, but anything works. Fill a pot with water and generously salt the water. Bring to a boil. Add pasta and cook according to package instructions.

For the sauce:

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup heavy cream

3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

several shakes each of salt, pepper, and nutmeg

While the pasta is cooking, melt the butter on low-medium heat with the cream. When the butter is melted, add the cheese and stir until the cheese is completely melted. Season to taste.

When the pasta is cooked, drain off all the water and add the drained pasta to the sauce. Stir to coat. For this dish I had a deli chicken in the fridge, so I chopped up about 1 1/2 cups of the meat and stirred it up in a pan with some butter and crushed garlic. I steamed a bunch of broccolini over the pasta for the last three minutes of cooking and put that on top as well.

NOTES:

Another thing different about this particular batch is that I did not have enough parmesan cheese on hand. I grated up some of my manchego to make up the difference. It was delicious!

I have made this sauce with cheddar cheese for homemade mac & cheese. When I use cheddar, I usually use sharp, and I substitute dry mustard for the nutmeg. The cheddar version is excellent poured over a head of steamed cauliflower.

This sauce also works with swiss cheese, (or Ementaler or Gruyere if you're fancy) which I particularly like with spaetzle.