Holiday Fettuccine Alfredo Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What can I add to fettuccine Alfredo to make it taste better? ›

You could just add garlic powder, sure, but quickly sautéeing fresh garlic while your pasta cooks is a great way to layer flavor. Resnick likes to add spinach as a way to cut the richness of the sauce. Add a tablespoon or so of olive oil and a few cloves of minced garlic in a sautée pan over medium heat.

Is Fettuccine a Christmas Eve Tradition? In Italy, Christmas Eve is often a day when no meat is eaten. So a pasta dish such as fettuccine is a traditional option. In southern Italy seafood dishes are on the menu as part of the Feast of the Seven Fishes.

Heartier herbs like thyme or oregano can be added in to simmer with the sauce. Add delicate herbs like parsley, basil, or chervil at the end to maintain their delicate, aromatic flavor. Quick tip: Swirl in a bit of leftover pesto to add another herbaceous twist to your Alfredo sauce.

The alfredo sauce, which now catered to American tastes rather than Italian, evolved to include ingredients like flour, cream, milk, and shrimp or chicken. To this day, di Lelio's original recipe only contains three ingredients: fettuccine, young Parmesan cheese, and butter.

Extra seasonings and spices will go a long way in adding flavor to a boring jar of sauce. Some of my personal favorites include salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, dried basil, oregano, onion powder or seasoned salt. Start with small amounts (1/2 teaspoon at a time) and add as needed, in order to avoid over-spicing.

Add basil, parsley, oregano, or rosemary to add life to the sauce. The first three herbs are classic for many Italian dishes, and rosemary is a common addition to creamy potato dishes, so adding them to a jarred Alfredo sauce makes sense.

In Southern and Central Italy, baked pasta is a must. In Northern Italy, Lasagne Bolognese and filled pasta like manicotti and ravioli are traditional Christmas fare. Next comes the main event, the meat. Roasted veal, baked chicken, sausages or braised beef are common Natale entrées worth celebrating.

Tortellini in brodo, pasta al forno, ragù…

Then, pasta, often several courses of it. Christmas pasta almost always has some sort of meat in it. Throughout Italy, but especially on tables in Emilia-Romagna, one finds the incomparable tortellini in brodo—meat-stuffed circles in a golden broth of beef and capon.

Cornstarch

The easiest way to accomplish this is to mix about a spoonful of cornstarch to 2 spoonfuls of liquid – it could be water or chicken stock or even milk. You will add this mixture, also called a slurry to the sauce and as it starts to cook, the sauce will thicken.

What goes well in Alfredo pasta? ›

Because the Alfredo sauce is cream based with Parmesan cheese I would recommend chicken, shrimp (or other fresh seafood). Sautee with garlic, salt and pepper, and maybe roasted red pepper and parsley to finish. Beef or pork would have a stronger flavor and not compliment the Alfredo as much in my opinion.

Fettuccine Alfredo, minus the spectacle, has now become ubiquitous in Italian-style restaurants outside Italy, although in Italy this dish is usually called simply "fettuccine al burro".

Fettuccine Alfredo—the real thing, anyway—is served at just two restaurants in Italy, but its popularity has exploded abroad. Everyone has heard of fettuccine Alfredo, sometimes called “Alfredo pasta” abroad.

Add a few dashes of garlic powder to your simmering sauce, or a clove or two of fresh sauteed garlic, to brighten up the Alfredo and make its flavor pop. You can also sprinkle in some fresh or dried herbs, like oregano, thyme, or basil, to add complexity to the sauce.

Butter: This Alfredo sauce starts with two sticks of butter. Cream: The rich sauce calls for almost a cup of heavy cream. Seasonings: The fettuccine Alfredo is simply seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic salt. Cheese: You'll need Romano and Parmesan cheeses.

While controlling the heat is what helps the fat (oil) not separate from the sauce in the first place, adding cream to your leftovers is what helps to revive the dish. This leaves the pasta nice and creamy again and makes sure that it's not dried out.