Fettuccine Alfredo are one of the most famous pasta dishes outside of Italy and have been a true symbol of Italian cuisine for years. Even today, they can be found in restaurants across the ocean and on supermarket shelves, either as a ready-made sauce or packaged with pre-cooked pasta.

Yet, they are practically unknown in our country.

History of Fettuccine Alfredo

The name given to this dish is not false but reveals its entirely Italian origins. The famous Fettuccine Alfredo were indeed born in Rome thanks to Alfredo Di Lelio in 1908 at his mother Angelina’s trattoria in Piazza Rosa. Their birth is described like this by the descendants: ‘It all started when his wife Ines gave birth to their firstborn. The woman was very exhausted after the birth of little Alfredo II, and her husband, worried about her health, did everything to help her regain her strength with healthy and nourishing food. It was here that the idea of the dish that would then become famous all over the world was born. With his own hands, he prepared fettuccine made with semolina, dressed with the freshest butter and parmigiano. After that, he said a prayer to St. Anne (the protector of mothers in labor) and served this dish to Ines, telling her: ‘If you don’t like it, I’ll eat it myself!’ She not only ate it with pleasure but even suggested to him to have then in their restaurant’s Menu.

Honestly, the idea of serving fettuccine as nourishment for a woman who has just given birth must have been really common for many, probably because it is a pasta with eggs. When I had just given birth to my daughter, the elderly neighbor brought me a beautiful tray of fresh fettuccine with the suggestion that it cooks quickly, so I could feed the little one, change her, put her to sleep, and prepare the pasta quickly and then start changing her and feeding her again.And it worked.

Well, going  to the Fettuccine Alfredo ,this pasta dressed with butter and parmigiano existed in Italy. And still nowadays it’s prepared in every family, very much appreciated by children,too.The only “invention” of Alfredo di Lelio was to add this simple and normal  dish on the menu of his restaurant.

The fortune of the dish came a few years later thanks to the encounter with Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, two Hollywood stars, who enjoyed this specialty at the restaurant on Via della Scrofa that Alfredo had opened in 1914. These two actors , in the era of silent cinema,  were as famous as Charlie Chaplin.

The two actors  loved this dish so much , brought the memory back to Hollywood, and during a subsequent visit to the restaurant in 1927, they gifted Alfredo with two solid gold utensils engraved with a dedication: ‘To Alfredo the King of the noodles.’ The fame of Fairbanks alone was enough to ensure the success of this very simple dish of Italian tradition in the States. Since then, numerous personalities from the world of cinema, sports, and politics passing through the Capital have enjoyed Alfredo’s specialty, increasing its fame.

In short, a common dish like pasta with butter and Parmigiano, which in fact was not a novelty and was not linked to any particular territory, had to wait for the endorsement of two celebrities to gain recognition across the ocean.

Later in Italy it got more recognition Pasta with triple butter  and double butter ,just  incrementing amounts of butter used.

 In practice, the triple butter is ensured by two hundred grams of butter on a little more than four hundred grams of Carnacina tagliatelle, which will reach two hundred and fifty grams on four hundred grams of tagliatelle in Veronelli’s version.

FETTUCCINE ALFREDO RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

Egg fettuccine 600 g =3 cups

Butter 300 g =1 1/3 cups  (don’t forget when we name butter in Italy ,it’s unsalted)

Parmigiano Reggiano 200 g =2.22 cups

Salt qb ,where qb means as much as needed/to taste

PREPARATION

First, cut the butter into pieces and place it in a large baking dish or a large tray.

Put the pasta to boil in salted boiling water. Add a few ladles of cooking water to the butter to soften it.

Drain the pasta and transfer it to the baking dish, then start mixing.

When the butter is completely melted, add the grated Parmigiano and mix again until you obtain a homogeneous sauce.

If necessary, soften the sauce by adding more cooking water.

And now ,serve them.

Don’t be surprised if Italians don’t know what Alfredo Pasta is, but talking about pasta with butter and Parmigiano they will tell you “Oh ,it makes me remember when I was a child and they regularly served it at school”.