This homemade fettuccine Alfredo is fancy enough to make for date nights, but quick and easy enough (ready in 30 minutes!) to make on busy weeknights.
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00:00 How's it going everyone?
00:01 It's Justin here in the Delish Kitchen studios.
00:03 A personal culinary ick for me, and this maybe might sound judgmental, is jarred Alfredo
00:08 sauce.
00:09 Nothing is grosser than seeing that congealed dairy mixture in a glass jar on the shelf.
00:15 It makes me want to puke.
00:17 And I especially feel that way because making your own Alfredo sauce is so easy, it's so
00:22 delicious, and it happens very quickly.
00:24 So I'm going to show you a very easy, straightforward way to make this Italian-American classic
00:29 and you are going to make it whenever you want.
00:31 I wasn't kidding when I said that this was simple.
00:34 These are all the ingredients you need.
00:36 Outside of salt and pepper, this is a four ingredient recipe.
00:39 Just pasta, cheese, butter, and cream.
00:42 That's it.
00:43 It's like one of those things that you can throw together basically any time.
00:46 You can throw in a protein and you have a great, incredible weeknight meal.
00:49 And the first thing we're going to do is we're going to cook our pasta.
00:52 As with any decent pasta recipe, you want to have some heavily salted pasta water.
00:57 We want to be really al dente here.
00:59 I know that some people like their pasta well cooked, but we're going to be adding this
01:02 to the sauce.
01:03 So we want to make sure we're cooking like maybe two, even three minutes under what the
01:08 recommended cook time is.
01:09 In this case, the box said 12, so I'm going to go around for like that nine and a half
01:14 minute mark.
01:15 Right before the pasta finishes cooking, make sure you get in and get about like a cup of
01:19 pasta water.
01:20 It is chock full of starch and we want to harness that to create a thicker, glossier
01:25 sauce.
01:26 We're going to let that cook.
01:27 Once it's nice and al dente, you can taste it, see the texture.
01:31 Once you're happy, you can pull it out, strain it in a colander.
01:34 While that's all going on, we're going to make our sauce.
01:37 A little hack for an application like this is using a high walled skillet.
01:41 It's kind of like somewhere between a pot and a pan.
01:43 It gives you a lot of room to toss things, which is why this is great for pasta.
01:47 We're going to create our sauce in here, add the pasta, and we will get everything mixed
01:51 and emulsified.
01:52 And this sauce comes together quickly.
01:54 So you could make it while your pasta is cooking, but I kind of like to focus so I can get the
01:58 perfect texture and flavor.
02:00 So my pasta is already cooked and drained.
02:02 Now I'm going to make the sauce.
02:03 I'm going to place the skillet over medium heat and I'm going to add an entire stick
02:07 of butter and some heavy cream.
02:09 I didn't say that this was going to be a light dish, but it is going to be delicious.
02:12 Let that all melt and start to bubble and simmer together.
02:15 Once you start to see those faint bubbles, we don't want like a rapid simmer, we're going
02:18 to go in with our cheese.
02:20 This is by far the most important part, not adding the cheese, but choosing which cheese.
02:25 Unfortunately for your wallet, this isn't really the time to save money.
02:29 You don't want to use canned Parmesan.
02:31 And honestly, if you can avoid it, you don't want that American Parm that's usually shrink
02:35 wrapped.
02:36 You can see it in a lot of major mega-marts.
02:37 Instead, you want to go for that stuff that looks like it was freshly cut off a wheel
02:42 that's wrapped by the grocery store that is labeled as Parmigiano-Reggiano.
02:46 You need this for a couple of reasons.
02:47 One, the flavor is just going to be next level.
02:50 When you are paying like eight, nine to $12 for a wedge of cheese, you know that that
02:54 taste is going to be there.
02:55 You're going to have that umami, that like lactic saltiness that is so iconic to Parm
03:01 and we want that in here.
03:02 Secondly, we want to think about how well this is going to melt into our sauce.
03:05 If you were to use the canned stuff or the pre-shredded Parm, God forbid, that you would
03:09 buy in the fridge section, it's not going to incorporate as well as this natural cheese.
03:15 Once all the cheese has been added and it's going to be a good amount, you're just going
03:18 to want this simmer for like one to two minutes.
03:20 This is going to help the cheese melt into the sauce and also let that flavor develop
03:23 a little bit.
03:24 While the cheese marries into the sauce, you're going to season with a bit of salt and only
03:27 a bit because remember, Parm is very salty and a decent amount of black pepper.
03:31 This is like our other dimension of flavor that's really important.
03:34 Freshly cracked pepper is going to do the trick.
03:37 Do not go for the canned stuff or the tinned stuff.
03:39 In this moment, it may seem thin, but I promise you, this sauce is going to thicken up both
03:44 as it cools and when we add the pasta.
03:47 Because even though we took out the pasta water for the starch, there's still starch
03:50 on those noodles.
03:51 Speaking of, we're now going to add them to our skillet and let everything get tossed
03:55 and married together.
03:57 This stage is important.
03:58 This is when you're going to start to gauge how thick your sauce is and that will determine
04:02 how much pasta water you add.
04:04 You're going to want to start going in like a tablespoon at a time until you see that
04:07 like glossy, saucy finish.
04:09 You shouldn't be seeing like lumps of cheese.
04:11 It shouldn't be like little granules.
04:12 It should be a nice, beautiful, creamy sauce.
04:15 Once everything's done, I'm going to garnish this with a bit more pepper and some parsley
04:19 and then it's ready to be eaten that quickly.
04:22 Four ingredients, seven if you count salt and pepper and garnish, and like 15 minutes
04:27 and you have an American Italian staple ready for dinner.
04:32 I'm psyched.
04:33 It's a classic for a reason.
04:35 There is something so warming about this creamy, rich plate of pasta.
04:40 The predominant flavor is that Parmesan because I took my time.
04:44 I got something a little bit more pricey and I grated it myself.
04:47 It's really coming through.
04:48 You get that sharp, umami salinity that is super necessary.
04:53 Also, don't forget that pepper.
04:55 Because there's not a ton going on here, you really come to love what this black pepper
04:59 is providing, that bit of spice, that bit of kick and some florality.
05:04 Really delicious.
05:05 I will say it's pretty rich.
05:06 You're going to want to serve this with like an acidic green salad or even just like a
05:09 nice glass of white wine.
05:11 That's going to balance this out.
05:13 This is just one of those recipes that you can add to your culinary arsenal.
05:17 For more incredible classics just like this one, stick around here on delish.com.
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