Is there an easier way to make Fettucine Alfredo?

[ShawtyCat]

Id actually like one where I didnt have to use raw eggs, even though it says the hot pasta will cook the eggs. I dont think that is true. The last thing I need is sick customers. There has to be an easier method. Ill give you the recipe Im using.

Cook pasta

While pasta is cooking mix the following in a bowl:

butter
cream cheese
parmesan cheese
eggs
heavy cream
salt & pepper

Toss finished pasta with sauce and serve. Cant remember the exact ingredients will have to look through my recipe cards and edit later.

[Pete]

Checking over a number of Alfredo recipes that are supposedly "authentic", I can find none that use eggs. It is usually made up of garlic, cream, cheese, pepper and olive oil or butter.

Here is one recipe I have used:

8 Tbs. butter
1 cup freshly grated parm
1/2 cup cream
salt & pepper

melt butter in pan, add cream, whisking constantly until hot and slightly reduced. Add cheese and cook (without boiling) just until melted. Add cooked and drained pasta.

Most of the other recipes I have are just variations on this theme. It tends to be a little more loose than ones thickened with eggs, but also more authentic. I have also come across numerous references that say that the traditional recipes used no cream at all. In that case you blend roomtemp butter with freshly grated parm until you have a smooth paste, then toss with hot, drained noodles along with a little of the pasta water.

[Kimmie]

Your recipe sounds more like a meatless Carbonara than an Alfredo, ShawtiCat!

I never measure but my recipe is quite similar to Pete's.

[ShawtyCat]

I have searched my books and finally realized that this recipe was given to me by a greek cook who is also a friend of my MIL. He is the one that suggested the cream cheese and egg yolk. All my books have the same recipe as yours. Ive always questioned the use of raw egg yolk.

So here is another question. I am wondering how long can I prepare this sauce in advance. Should I make a big batch the beginning of the week or two small batches, one at the begining and the other in the middle? Are there any other pasta sauces that can be made in advance and refrigerated and will this affect the taste?

Thanks.

[marmalady]

One of the catering companies I worked for made an Alfredo sauce starting with a white roux, then adding cream, cooking it down, and adding parm and butter at the end. Since we were making huge batches at one time for several gigs, all going out with on-site chefs, it seemed to keep the sauce from breaking. Using just a little roux seemed to be enough.

[chiffonade]

...And we had regular customers who came back repeatedly for this...

Par cooked fettucini, still quite firm.

In the pan,
a squirt of oil
a tsp of freshly chopped garlic
A good ..slurp of cream (don't quite know how to describe the amount, probably 1/2 cup)
a fistfull of grated parmesan
S&P
cook for a minute
toss in a good fistful of fettucini
toss to coat
cook 1-2 minutes to heat through.

I'm telling you, this stuff is delicious. It is made by the pan. We found it best to do it this way - it doesn't hold very well.

[Suzanne]

Chiffonade's version is fresh and great, and since it's so quick, it should work for you. You just have to be careful about keeping the cream under refrigeration, only taking it out to pour some and then RIGHT back into the fridge. If you don't think that will be possible, you could boil it down first. That will not eliminate the safety problem completely, but will help some. Also, it makes the dish a bit richer. Anyway, to my taste, simpler is usually better.

[Pastachef]

I start my Alfredo sauce with a white roux also, Marmalady. It makes the sauce fail proof and gives it body. I never saw a recipe for this sauce and worked it out in my head. I'm glad to see that it is okay to make it this way I like to add chopped broccoli florets or seafood.

[riverrun]

Well, all i can do is tell u what i do and yes the authentic recipe for alfredo sauce is thickened with egg yolks, it has the same principle as if making a custurd.
My recipe i find very easy and i make it to order.
1and half cups cream
2oz of grated parm
2ozof grated pecorino
and 1T of butter
heat the cream to a boil in pan then add cheese and pasta at same time and toss with butter salt and pepper as needed, The pecorino cheese makes the difference in this sauce it adds a little bit of a tang to it.

[Pete]

Shawnty, I did some checking, and all of the recipes (both in my books and on the net), that claim to be authentic do not use eggs in it.

But on the issue of using raw egg yolks in such dishes, I would not worry too much, as long as you are careful. I eat carbonara quite often. It uses raw egg yolks, and I have never gotten the slightest bit ill from it. And you really are cooking them. If you make the dish correctly, there should not bee much cream and yolk, and the pasta comes right out of the boiling water, and into the bowl, your eggs will get cooked. Sure, not all the way cooked, but about to the same degree of doneness that a hollendaise does. And they surely get more cooked than a yolk in an over-easy or sunny-side-up egg.

[riverrun]

As far as egg yolks go i'm just relaying the message from Chef Claudio Peppini (god rest his soul) who was from Florence Italy who i had the privlage of studing under.

[Pongi]

Can't say anything about fettuccine Alfredo as they're totally unknown in Italy (it always amazes me a lot that one of the most popular "Italian" pasta dishes in US is not Italian...and I'd like to know from you experts the history of this recipe!) but I'd like to add my 2 cents to the Carbonara recipe:

The original recipe calls not only for egg yolks, but also for whites. You're supposed to beat slightly the whole eggs with salt, pepper and parmesan and then add the hot pasta. The old-fashion Roman cooks are so skilful and can toss the mix so quickly that they get a smooth cream and not an omelet!
The problem is that's likely that common people get an omelet...so, the usual recipes contain only the egg yolks (about 1 egg each person) but NOT the cream.
You must fry the diced "Guanciale" (bacon) in oil until crispy; beat the egg yolks with salt, pepper, grated parmesan or Pecorino cheese; cook the pasta; toss it very quickly with the egg mixture; add the fried Guanciale and serve.
If you want a tastier recipe, adding some chopped onion, fried separately until soft in the same oil of the guanciale, is admitted; but cream, although very used also in Italy, is not an ingredient of the true Carbonara recipe.

Pongi

[marmalady]

Hi, Pongi, Found this re history of Alfredo sauce:

http://www.neuronet.pitt.edu/~mruperto/alfredo1.htm

The classic way of preparing fettuccini is to dress the pasta with butter and parmesan. Apparently the Romans ate something similar in the 13th century. In the 1920's a Roman chef named Alfredo embellished the dish by adding cream. His restaurant, Alfredo all Scorfa, and the dish bearing his name became world famous when Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, the darlings of the American movies, presented him with a gold fork and spoon in honor of his creation. I believe there are now three "Alfredo's" in Rome, one of them owned by a former employee of the original. I've never eaten in any of them, but I'm told they are all tourist traps.

[Pete]

You're right Pongi, cream is not "authentic" in traditional carbonara. I use just a touch (1-2 Tablespoons) to help keep the egg from cooking too much and I tend to like mine just a bit creamier. You mentioned Guanicale (bacon). I am not familiar with that word. Is it like panchetta (unsmoked) or more like American bacon (smoked)? I was always taught to use panchetta as opposed to American bacon as the smokiness tends to overpower the dish. I have to admit though, that I prefer the smokiness of the American bacon in my carbonara.

As for the history of Alfredo, supposedly, it was created in the early part of the 1900's in a restaurant in Rome. I will have to search further in my books to see if I can find the name. It was brought over to the US in the mid-70's I believe where it achieved much more noterity than in it's native land. Usually a bastardized verision of it is served in today's restaurants. Here it is often nothing more than a bechamel (roux thickened white sauce) finished with lots of parmesan and garlic.

[chrose]

The French methode for Fettucine Alfredo is to use the egg yolks with cream in a Liason that is added to the other cream so as to thicken the sauce without reducing it. The eggs do cook which is how the sauce thickens so yes it is safe. I personally agree with Riverrun and that's how I do mine. Occasionally to be true to form I'll use the liason but for a less artery clogging experience I just do a reduction.
And using Bechamel is a bastardization and will never be done in my kitchen. Bechamel has a place, but Fettucine Alfredo is not it!