I love Fettuccini Alfredo. I love the long, thick, chewy noodle shape and the creamy, warm sauce is always comforting. This is a dish I grew up with, kind of. We never had Fettuccini Alfredo made at home, don’t get me wrong, but this is a go to dish when we would go out for dinner. I love all pastas and am a carb fiend. I love broccoli which is a typical accompaniment when eating out and am not against a little chicken here and there. I can clearly remember my first experience with Fettuccini Alfredo and it’s quite embarrassing but here it is.
The summer before 4th grade my family went on vacation for a week or two to visit my aunt and uncle in Florida. My cousins are a year and 6 years older than me, making me the baby of the group and at 8 years old things were still pretty fresh to me. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned it before but while we did eat American food at home both my parents tend to cook more Vietnamese/Chinese cuisine and that’s more of what I leaned towards in terms of taste but my brother and both my cousins in Florida are super picky and growing up they favored American food more. Less weird sauces and seafood and more carbs and chicken. Cue the microwavable Fettuccini Alfredo by Michelina’s. I still remember the green box with the lid that doesn’t quite peel off correctly and the frozen mass of noodles and sauce that somehow melt perfectly when microwaved. 8 year old me did not need much convincing. I was addicted to this meal and my mom and my aunt bought me troves of these at the grocery store for the rest of the trip and on through the summer once we got back to Rochester. This tiny box was the perfect amount for me then but every once in awhile when I revisit this microwavable meal I’ll opt for the larger boxes from various brands. It’s been a long time since I’ve had one of these but they remind me of growing up and summertime still. That was the year I gained 7lbs and shot up 3inches to the glee of my childhood physicians. I’d finally hit an average weight and he didn’t have to ask me if I ate enough at home anymore, a hilarious question for a child with a chef dad and a grandmother who’s greeting wasn’t “Hello” instead being “Have you eaten yet today”. I always well fed but baby Emily was a rabbit that consumed vegetables and rice like no other and ran around outside till it was dark. Fettuccini just fueled this drive and gave me longer legs to do it.
This was a long detour all to say that I love pasta and Alfredo and would not be the solid 5ft 1inches that I am today without it. Maybe. So when Caleb mentioned Carla Lalli Music had a recipe for Alfredo one night we decided to give it a shot. Let me just preface that we‘ve made this recipe twice and it’s quite tricky. Caleb gave it a shot the first time and while the list of ingredients consists of pasta water, butter, and parmesan cheese it was more difficult to get the sauce to come together than we’d like. When Caleb made it we watched Carla’s video as a guide and he admits that he didn’t take the time to add the butter in chunks and instead threw the whole stick into the pasta water base for the sauce and it never quite came together with the cheese not integrating and instead forming little balls in the water instead. Not a terrible attempt because it tasted like buttery pasta but not quite cheese and creamy like we wanted.
Last night was my stubborn attempt to see if we would like it more if the sauce came together the way the Carla described. Video in hand and butter cut down, I got the butter to emulsify the way that Carla describes and the cheese melted into it perfectly. I had to reduce it down a little and ended up not adding any extra pasta water. In the end I was a little concerned because it did still look a little watery in the pan but the cooking utensils were catching some unseen melted parmesan and solidifying when pulled out so I hoped for the best and seasoned with pepper and dinner was served. This attempt worked out much better and the noddles were lightly coated in a glossy layer of cheesy, buttery sauce that was almost undetectable by the human eye but as intended. Success in accomplishing Carla’s Alfredo. However, for us we miss the cream from our idea of what Alfredo is. Tasty but this is a buttery pasta and we want cream. Not our favorite sauce but I’m glad I gave it a shot and nailed the execution. Took us a couple tries but now we know for sure. We just have to find another recipe in the Bon Appetit troves.
