FETTUCCINE ALFREDO

When our children were young, my husband would make 2 or 3 signature dishes that he had developed on his own.  One of them was Fettuccine Alfredo.  He would make this pasta dish and I would make the accompanying ham steak with brown sugar and pineapple.  My children loved this and I loved it too:  I was not responsible for the whole dinner.

It must have been during the spring, when my husband is always very, very busy, and the kids wanted the fettuccine alfredo.  There was no way my husband was going to pull this off, this was a relaxing winter dish for him to make.  So I attempted to make the pasta like he did:  nope, failure.  So then I started looking for recipes (I do not make anything without one, which can be somewhat of a draw back but that’s the way it goes, I do a lot of tweaking!) and found this one from Cooking Light.

I use whatever pasta we have on hand or what ever someone really wants.  It’s not essential to have it on fettuccine.  Also, this is terrible as a leftover, it does not warm up well at all.  So if you can’t eat the whole recipe, save 1/2 or whatever quantity of the sauce.  Do not pour the entire sauce recipe on the pasta, if you can’t eat it all.

I have done this many times: when my son wants dinner at 4:30 pm (he has night class at 6 pm), I cook only the amount of pasta for him and save half the sauce for my husband and I later.  Just be really, really, careful warming it up.  Do not rewarm in the microwave.  Put the sauce on a burner, at medium low heat, stirring constantly and re-warm.  If it boils or simmers too vigorously, the sauce becomes grainy.  I have done this.  It’s ok but it’s much tastier smooth and creamy!

Fettuccine Alfredo (adapted from Cooking Light)

1 tablespoon butter

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon flour

1-1/3 cups 2% milk

5 ounces of fresh Parmesan Cheese, grated (Stella Parmesan Cheese is my favorite!)

2 tablespoons cream cheese

4 cups hot cooked fettuccine (8 ounces uncooked) or less (if you are serving only 2 people you really don’t need 4 cups of pasta, well maybe you do……)

Melt butter in a medium  saucepan over medium heat.  Add garlic and cook one minute stirring constantly.  Stir in flour and incorporate thoroughly with butter and garlic mixture.  Gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk, making sure everything is combined.  Bring milk mixture to a simmer and simmer for 6 minutes, (this is important, it might take 6-8 minutes to bring it to a simmer over medium heat but don’t rush it by turning up the heat) stirring frequently (just leave the whisk in the pan), it will become slightly thickened.  Turn off heat and add grated cheese and cream cheese and stir constantly until melted.  Pour over Fettuccine, stir to combine and serve IMMEDIATELY. (Everyone should be waiting in the background with their dishes, ready to be served.  It doesn’t do well to sit in the pan too long.   So tell everyone:  chop, chop, dinner is ready!!)

This is a simple way to peel garlic:  take the clove and smash it with the side of a knife.  The skin falls off and viola!, a peeled garlic clove, ready to be minced:

Mise en place:

Butter, garlic, flour:

Milk mixture simmering:

Cheeses all melted:

Served over Linguine Fini with baked pineapple and brown sugar (my son’s request):