Fettuccini Alfredo
Total time: 30 minutes
The trick to this classic sauce is not the addition of heavy cream or lots of butter, but in the careful melting of the Parmesan. A bit of the cooking water is added to help the process. The end result is a thick, very creamy sauce that lets the Parmesan flavor shine. It's also much lighter than the typical version.
Ingredients:
- 4oz (120gr) fettuccini or linguini, dried or 8oz (240gr) fresh
-
3 tbs butter
- 1 cup (3oz, 90gr) freshly grated Parmesan
- 1 tbs Mascarpone or 2 tbs Greek yogurt
- 1/4 - 1/2 cup pasta cooking water
Instructions:
- Cook the pasta according to package directions, until 'al dente'.
- Drain, reserving a cup of the cooking water.
- Put the pot on very low heat and add the butter, mascarpone or yogurt and pasta.
- Sprinkle half of the Parmesan over the top.
- With 2 large forks start tossing the pasta like you would a salad.
- When the Parmesan is well distributed sprinkle the rest over the top plus 1 tbs pasta water.
- Continue tossing.
- If / when the cheese starts to stick a bit to the bottom of the pan, add 1 - 2 tbs pasta water and scrape it off the bottom of the pan.
- Continue tossing the pasta, adding a bit of water when needed, until the Parmesan is melted and the pasta is covered with a thick, creamy sauce.
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It took me about 10 minutes of tossing and fussing before the cheese was melted into the butter forming a proper, creamy sauce. If you don't add the water and spend the time mixing, you end up with Pasta with Parmesan..... also good, just not that same