Skip Going Out—Make This Creamy Fettuccine Alfredo Instead

Delish

This homemade fettuccine Alfredo is fancy enough to make for date nights, but quick and easy enough (ready in 30 minutes!) to make on busy weeknights.

Transcript

00:00 How's it going everyone?

00:01 It's Justin here in the Delish Kitchen studios.

00:03 A personal culinary ick for me, and this maybe might sound judgmental, is jarred Alfredo

00:08 sauce.

00:09 Nothing is grosser than seeing that congealed dairy mixture in a glass jar on the shelf.

00:15 It makes me want to puke.

00:17 And I especially feel that way because making your own Alfredo sauce is so easy, it's so

00:22 delicious, and it happens very quickly.

00:24 So I'm going to show you a very easy, straightforward way to make this Italian-American classic

00:29 and you are going to make it whenever you want.

00:31 I wasn't kidding when I said that this was simple.

00:34 These are all the ingredients you need.

00:36 Outside of salt and pepper, this is a four ingredient recipe.

00:39 Just pasta, cheese, butter, and cream.

00:42 That's it.

00:43 It's like one of those things that you can throw together basically any time.

00:46 You can throw in a protein and you have a great, incredible weeknight meal.

00:49 And the first thing we're going to do is we're going to cook our pasta.

00:52 As with any decent pasta recipe, you want to have some heavily salted pasta water.

00:57 We want to be really al dente here.

00:59 I know that some people like their pasta well cooked, but we're going to be adding this

01:02 to the sauce.

01:03 So we want to make sure we're cooking like maybe two, even three minutes under what the

01:08 recommended cook time is.

01:09 In this case, the box said 12, so I'm going to go around for like that nine and a half

01:14 minute mark.

01:15 Right before the pasta finishes cooking, make sure you get in and get about like a cup of

01:19 pasta water.

01:20 It is chock full of starch and we want to harness that to create a thicker, glossier

01:25 sauce.

01:26 We're going to let that cook.

01:27 Once it's nice and al dente, you can taste it, see the texture.

01:31 Once you're happy, you can pull it out, strain it in a colander.

01:34 While that's all going on, we're going to make our sauce.

01:37 A little hack for an application like this is using a high walled skillet.

01:41 It's kind of like somewhere between a pot and a pan.

01:43 It gives you a lot of room to toss things, which is why this is great for pasta.

01:47 We're going to create our sauce in here, add the pasta, and we will get everything mixed

01:51 and emulsified.

01:52 And this sauce comes together quickly.

01:54 So you could make it while your pasta is cooking, but I kind of like to focus so I can get the

01:58 perfect texture and flavor.

02:00 So my pasta is already cooked and drained.

02:02 Now I'm going to make the sauce.

02:03 I'm going to place the skillet over medium heat and I'm going to add an entire stick

02:07 of butter and some heavy cream.

02:09 I didn't say that this was going to be a light dish, but it is going to be delicious.

02:12 Let that all melt and start to bubble and simmer together.

02:15 Once you start to see those faint bubbles, we don't want like a rapid simmer, we're going

02:18 to go in with our cheese.

02:20 This is by far the most important part, not adding the cheese, but choosing which cheese.

02:25 Unfortunately for your wallet, this isn't really the time to save money.

02:29 You don't want to use canned Parmesan.

02:31 And honestly, if you can avoid it, you don't want that American Parm that's usually shrink

02:35 wrapped.

02:36 You can see it in a lot of major mega-marts.

02:37 Instead, you want to go for that stuff that looks like it was freshly cut off a wheel

02:42 that's wrapped by the grocery store that is labeled as Parmigiano-Reggiano.

02:46 You need this for a couple of reasons.

02:47 One, the flavor is just going to be next level.

02:50 When you are paying like eight, nine to $12 for a wedge of cheese, you know that that

02:54 taste is going to be there.

02:55 You're going to have that umami, that like lactic saltiness that is so iconic to Parm

03:01 and we want that in here.

03:02 Secondly, we want to think about how well this is going to melt into our sauce.

03:05 If you were to use the canned stuff or the pre-shredded Parm, God forbid, that you would

03:09 buy in the fridge section, it's not going to incorporate as well as this natural cheese.

03:15 Once all the cheese has been added and it's going to be a good amount, you're just going

03:18 to want this simmer for like one to two minutes.

03:20 This is going to help the cheese melt into the sauce and also let that flavor develop

03:23 a little bit.

03:24 While the cheese marries into the sauce, you're going to season with a bit of salt and only

03:27 a bit because remember, Parm is very salty and a decent amount of black pepper.

03:31 This is like our other dimension of flavor that's really important.

03:34 Freshly cracked pepper is going to do the trick.

03:37 Do not go for the canned stuff or the tinned stuff.

03:39 In this moment, it may seem thin, but I promise you, this sauce is going to thicken up both

03:44 as it cools and when we add the pasta.

03:47 Because even though we took out the pasta water for the starch, there's still starch

03:50 on those noodles.

03:51 Speaking of, we're now going to add them to our skillet and let everything get tossed

03:55 and married together.

03:57 This stage is important.

03:58 This is when you're going to start to gauge how thick your sauce is and that will determine

04:02 how much pasta water you add.

04:04 You're going to want to start going in like a tablespoon at a time until you see that

04:07 like glossy, saucy finish.

04:09 You shouldn't be seeing like lumps of cheese.

04:11 It shouldn't be like little granules.

04:12 It should be a nice, beautiful, creamy sauce.

04:15 Once everything's done, I'm going to garnish this with a bit more pepper and some parsley

04:19 and then it's ready to be eaten that quickly.

04:22 Four ingredients, seven if you count salt and pepper and garnish, and like 15 minutes

04:27 and you have an American Italian staple ready for dinner.

04:32 I'm psyched.

04:33 It's a classic for a reason.

04:35 There is something so warming about this creamy, rich plate of pasta.

04:40 The predominant flavor is that Parmesan because I took my time.

04:44 I got something a little bit more pricey and I grated it myself.

04:47 It's really coming through.

04:48 You get that sharp, umami salinity that is super necessary.

04:53 Also, don't forget that pepper.

04:55 Because there's not a ton going on here, you really come to love what this black pepper

04:59 is providing, that bit of spice, that bit of kick and some florality.

05:04 Really delicious.

05:05 I will say it's pretty rich.

05:06 You're going to want to serve this with like an acidic green salad or even just like a

05:09 nice glass of white wine.

05:11 That's going to balance this out.

05:13 This is just one of those recipes that you can add to your culinary arsenal.

05:17 For more incredible classics just like this one, stick around here on delish.com.

05:21 [music]

05:24 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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