Fettuccine Alfredo
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Fettuccine Alfredo (Template:IPA) is a pasta dish consisting of fettuccine tossed with butter and Parmesan cheese which melt and emulsify to form a rich cheese sauce coating the pasta.<ref name="cb72">Template:Harvnb</ref> Originating in Rome in the early 20th century, the recipe is now popular in the United States and other countries.<ref name="Cesari-2023">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Somma-2024" />
The dish is named after Alfredo Di Lelio, a Roman restaurateur who is credited with its creation and subsequent popularization.<ref name="Cesari-2023a" /> Di Lelio's tableside service was an integral part of the recipe's early success.<ref name="downie">Template:Harvnb</ref><ref name="Rector-1927">George Rector, "A Cook's Tour", The Saturday Evening Post, November 19, 1927, pp. 14, 52, 54, 56, 58 snippet</ref><ref name="frasi" /> Fettuccine Alfredo is a variant of standard Italian preparations fettuccine al burro (Template:Gloss), pasta burro e parmigiano (Template:Gloss), and pasta in bianco (Template:Gloss).<ref name="Root-1971">Template:Harvnb</ref><ref name="Mariani">Template:HarvnbTemplate:Page needed</ref><ref name="zafferano">Template:Cite web</ref>
Outside of Italy, cream is sometimes used to thicken the sauce, and ingredients such as chicken, shrimp, or broccoli may be added when fettuccine Alfredo is served as a main course.<ref name="Cesari-2023a" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Neither cream nor other additional ingredients are used in Italy, where the dish is rarely called "Alfredo" outside of Rome.<ref name="Cesari-2023" />
History
Italian origins
In Italy, the combination of pasta with butter and cheese dates to at least the 15th century, when it was mentioned by Martino da Como, a northern Italian cook active in Rome;<ref name="Gambero2016">Template:Cite web</ref> this recipe for "Roman macaroni" (Template:Langx) calls for cooking pasta in broth or water and adding butter, "good cheese" (the variety is not specified) and "sweet spices".<ref name="arte-coquinaria">Template:Cite book Original manuscript scan available on the Library of Congress, relevant section on page 39.</ref>
Roman creation
Modern fettuccine Alfredo was created by Alfredo Di Lelio in Rome in the early 20th century. According to family lore, in 1892 Alfredo began to work in a restaurant located in Piazza Rosa that was run by his mother, Angelina. He cooked his first fettuccine al triplo burro (Template:Gloss—later called fettuccine all'Alfredo, and eventually fettuccine Alfredo)<ref name="cb72" /> in 1907 or 1908, in what is said to have been an effort to entice his convalescent wife, Ines, to eat after giving birth to their first child, Armando.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Recipes attributed to Di Lelio include only three ingredients: fettuccine, "young" Parmesan cheese and butter.<ref name="Popik-2009" /><ref name="Rector-1927"/><ref name="frasi" /> Yet there are various legends about the "secret" of the original Alfredo recipe: some say oil is added to the pasta dough; others that the pasta is cooked in milk.<ref>Doris Muscatine, A Cook's Tour of Rome, New York: Charles Scribers' Sons, 1964, p. 126</ref>
Piazza Rosa was condemned to make way for the construction of the Galleria Colonna (Template:Circa)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and his mother's restaurant was forced to close. Di Lelio subsequently opened his own restaurant on the via della Scrofa (Template:Circa).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Following a visit to Ristorante Alfredo by the American actors Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks (who was known as "The King of Hollywood")<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> in the early 1920s, Alfredo began to serve his signature dish using a golden fork and spoon bearing the inscription "To Alfredo the King of the noodles" (said to have been a gift from the famous Hollywood couple in gratitude for Alfredo's hospitality).<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Popik-2009" /><ref name="cb72" /><ref name="Cesari-2023" /> Di Lelio's fame and success grew (he was knighted by the King of Italy, making him a Cavaliere dell'Ordine della Corona d'Italia) until war rationing made it increasingly difficult to obtain flour, eggs, and butter.<ref name="Newman-1927">Edward Manuel Newman, Seeing Italy, 1927, p. 176</ref><ref name="Rohe-1927" /><ref name="Rector-1927" /> He sold the restaurant to two of his waiters in 1943 and retired.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="frasi">'frasi' [pseudo. of Francesco Simoncini], Ristoranti a Roma, A.B.E.T.E. 1967, p. 99</ref>
After the war, in 1950, Di Lelio opened a new restaurant in Piazza Augusto Imperatore with his son Armando.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Somma-2024">Template:Cite web</ref> He vigorously promoted the restaurant by creating a celebrity wall of fettuccine themed photographs showing himself (in humorous poses, with his pasta and gold cutlery) serving dignitaries, politicians, famous musicians and film stars such as James Stewart, Bob Hope, Anthony Quinn, Bing Crosby, Gary Cooper, Jack Lemmon, Ava Gardner, Tyrone Power, Sophia Loren, Cantinflas, and many others.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> The dish was so well known that Di Lelio was invited to demonstrate it both in Italy and abroad.<ref name="frasi" /> The fame of the dish, by this time called maestosissime fettuccine all'Alfredo (Template:Gloss) on Alfredo's menus, was heightened by the tableside "spectacle reminiscent of grand opera" during its preparation,<ref name="Root-1971" /> "in a ritual of extraordinary theatricality". Template:Quotebox Both the original restaurant (now called Alfredo alla Scrofa), and the post-war iteration (known as Il vero Alfredo and still run by the Di Lelio family) serve "fettuccine Alfredo" and compete vigorously, with escalating puffery (e.g., "the king of fettuccine", "the real king of fettuccine", "the magician of fettuccine", "the emperor of fettuccine", "the real Alfredo", etc.).<ref name="frasi" /> In 1981, there were about 50 restaurants in Rome selling similar fettuccine dishes, mostly called fettuccine alla romana.<ref name="Hoffmann-1981"/>
Fettuccine Alfredo, minus the spectacle, has become ubiquitous in Italian-style restaurants outside of Italy, although despite its worldwide renown, in Italy this dish is usually still called simply fettuccine al burro.<ref name="zafferano" /><ref name="Mariani" /><ref name="Cesari-2023" /> According to the Roman edition of the Corriere della Sera, since 2005 Fettuccine Alfredo Day has been celebrated on the 7th of February "throughout the world" to commemorate Di Lelio's famous creation.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":0" />
American popularization
The dish has long been popular with Americans, who, when in Rome, have often sought out its historical origins.<ref name="Cesari-2023a">Template:Cite web, excerpted from Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Alfredo's noodles have been extolled in US newspapers, magazines, cookbooks, and guidebooks since as early as the 1920s.<ref name="Newman-1927" /><ref>Harper's Bazaar, 67, 1933, p. 52</ref><ref name="Popik-2009">Barry Popik, "Fettuccine Alfredo", February 14, 2009 [1]</ref> In one of her popular travel guides, So You're Going to Rome!, Clara Laughlin writes, "Most travellers would blush to admit they had been in Rome and had not eaten Alfredo's fettuccine al burro."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Sinclair Lewis's 1922 novel Babbitt makes reference to "a little trattoria on the Via della Scrofa where you get the best fettuccine in the world".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the American food writer and restaurateur George Rector wrote about "Alfredo's noodles", describing in detail the restaurateur's elaborate tableside preparation ceremony; he did not give the dish a specific name.<ref name="Rector-1927"/> In a later account, Rector mentions the addition of accompanying violin music and golden tableware.<ref name="Rector-1933">Template:Cite book</ref> Template:Quote box By the 1920s Alfredo was billing himself as Il Re delle Fettuccine Template:Gloss (printed on his menus in both Italian and English), although when exactly the "fettuccine Alfredo" appellation came about is unclear. A 1925 Italian guidebook and its English translation uses "fettuccine al burro";<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> however, a 1927 article by Alice Rohe mentions "noodles Alfredo".<ref name="Rohe-1927">Template:Cite news</ref> Throughout this period and beyond, restaurant reviews, advertisements, and recipes for "noodles Alfredo" (1927 and 1929),<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> "Alfredo's spaghetti" (1939),<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> "fettuccine all'Alfredo" (1956),<ref>29 March 1956, Moravia (Iowa) Union, pg. 4, col. 6: Last week we had fettuccine al Alfredo, which was described on some program by a chef just oof [sic] the plane from Rome—he even brought his own cheese—and then we had cherries jubilee for dessert.</ref> and eventually "fettuccine Alfredo" (1957 and 1964)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> began to crop up in various publications.
In 1966, the Pennsylvania Dutch Noodle Company started selling their dried "fettuccine egg noodles" with an "Alfredo" recipe on the package. In addition to the traditional Parmesan cheese and butter, this version also included Swiss cheese and cream.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Coleman-2009">Template:Cite web</ref>
In 1977, Armando Di Lelio (Alfredo's son) and a partner opened a restaurant called "Alfredo's" near Rockefeller Center in New York, and several years later, another in Epcot at Disney World—both of which have since closed.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> More recently, Ines Di Lelio (Alfredo's granddaughter) has operated or licensed the "Il Vero Alfredo" name to restaurants in Mexico and Saudi Arabia.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The two largest full-service Italian-American restaurant chains, Olive Garden and Carrabba's Italian Grill, both serve and advertise the dish widely.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> A smaller chain, Il Fornaio, which says that its goal is, to "provide our guests with the most authentic Italian experience outside of Italy", does not serve fettuccine Alfredo.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Some American food writers recommend that home cooks follow Di Lelio's three ingredient formula. Writing in Bon Appétit, the Italian-American chef Carla Lalli Music notes that "American cooks added heavy cream or half-and-half to thicken and enrich the sauce. To each their own, but no authentic fettuccine Alfredo recipe should include cream (because it dulls the flavor of the cheese)."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The dish has its enthusiasts and its detractors. In 2018, the restaurant critic Pete Wells said of one version, "The Alfredo sauce, sweetly dripping from the fettuccine like rain from a leaf, hit me like a prescription opiate that had been specifically engineered for my opiate receptors. It's been a long time since I'd had fettuccine Alfredo";<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1981, the travel writer Paul Hoffman called the Roman versions "one of the most tempting and at the same time simplest pasta specialties".<ref name="Hoffmann-1981">Template:Cite news</ref> On the other hand, the food writer Gillian Riley says that the fettuccine of Rome "hardly need Alfredo's gross sauce of butter, cream [sic], and cheese".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The American nutrition advocate Michael Jacobson described fettuccine Alfredo as a "heart attack on a plate".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Alfredo sauce
In the United States, shelf-stable Alfredo sauce is sold by brands such as Ragú, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods Market, Bertolli, Kroger, Classico, Prego, Rao's, Newman's Own, Signature Select, and Saclà in glass jars for home cooks. Giovanni Rana and Buitoni sell fresh Alfredo sauces in plastic tubs that must be refrigerated. The Alaska Seasoning Company makes "Alfredo sauce powder", a spice mix to which, according to the company, one "simply [adds] cream [to] make a restaurant style Alfredo Sauce".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> These sauces are marketed at various price points and quality levels, and are often reviewed in food related publications.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The British retailer ASDA sells a version called "New York creamy chicken Alfredo sauce".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Other Alfredo variants and formats such as pre-packaged fresh, boil-in-bag, or frozen meals are also widely available in the United States.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In the late 1970s, McDonald's experimented with a dinner menu that included fettuccine Alfredo, pizza, lasagna, and McSpaghetti. These options are no longer available in the U.S.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
In Italy, Alfredo alla Scrofa began offering its own version of salsa Alfredo in 2020. Sold in glass jars and promoted as using only the highest quality ingredients, the sauce contains Parmesan (43%), water, butter, rice flour, and sunflower seed oil—but no cream.<ref>"La Salsa Alfredo arriva a casa in barattolo. Idea del mitico ristorante romano delle Fettuccine", Gambero Rosso, May 9, 2020</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
See also
References
Further reading
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External links
- Our History (via Il Vero Alfredo)