In this edition of Epicurious 101, professional chef and culinary instructor Frank Proto demonstrates how to make the best fettuccine alfredo at home.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00I'm Frank Proto, professional chef and culinary instructor,
00:02and today I'm gonna show you how to make
00:03the best fettuccine Alfredo at home.
00:05We're talking silky, creamy, classic fettuccine Alfredo.
00:09This is fettuccine Alfredo 101.
00:13Fettuccine Alfredo is a classic dish
00:15that you normally don't see in restaurants in Italy.
00:18It's basically pasta with butter and Parmesan,
00:20pasta al burro, or pasta con Parmigiano e burro.
00:23The American version of fettuccine Alfredo uses cream.
00:26This is more the original version
00:28that came from Italy to America.
00:30Real fettuccine Alfredo only has three ingredients,
00:32butter, Parmesan cheese, and pasta.
00:36It's all about the technique,
00:37and once you get that down,
00:38you're gonna make it perfectly every time at home.
00:43One thing I talk about all the time is mise en place.
00:45This dish comes together really quickly,
00:47so you have to have everything close by.
00:49One of the main ingredients in our fettuccine Alfredo
00:51is Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.
00:53It is really, really important
00:55that you use real Parmigiano-Reggiano from Italy.
00:58You can tell that it's real
00:59because it's gonna be stamped
01:01Parmigiano-Reggiano on the outside.
01:03You're gonna see that rind.
01:04The Parmigiano-Reggiano and the butter,
01:06when you mix it together,
01:07emulsifies the sauce and makes it creamy.
01:10One of the key factors of this dish
01:11is getting good ingredients.
01:12Because there are so few ingredients,
01:14getting the best you can afford is really, really important.
01:17So I'm gonna start grating my cheese.
01:19It's really important
01:20that your Parmigiano cheese be finely grated.
01:22I'm using a microplane.
01:23If you don't have a microplane,
01:25you can grate it on a grater
01:26and then sift it or strain it
01:28just to get the big chunks out.
01:29But I want this cheese to be nice and fine
01:31so that it melts once it gets hot.
01:33So you can see that this microplane does that really well.
01:36Part of the reason I don't use pre-grated cheese
01:38is that I can't tell if it's real, right?
01:41Someone could be selling me Parmesan cheese
01:43and I don't see the rind, so I don't really trust it.
01:45Second of all, it's usually not ground fine enough.
01:48And a lot of times when you buy pre-grated cheese,
01:51there are things in the cheese
01:52that will stop it from clumping,
01:53like they'll use anti-caking ingredients.
01:56And that does not do well for us
01:58when it comes to making the finished dish.
02:00Sometimes also in pre-grated cheese, it's very moist.
02:02And this cheese is usually super dry
02:04and that makes our product a little stringy in the end.
02:07So grate your own cheese, it's worth it.
02:08So it does look like a lot of cheese
02:10and I'm basically gonna use like three quarters of a pound
02:12or a pound of cheese to a pound of pasta.
02:15It's indulgent.
02:15This is a luxurious dish.
02:17It is cheesy, it is rich.
02:19Don't skimp on the cheese here.
02:21The cheese is grated.
02:22And what's funny about this dish
02:23is this is really the only action
02:25or the only mise en place you have to do.
02:29I have a pot of boiling water
02:30and usually chefs tell people
02:32to use a large pot of boiling water.
02:34In this case, I want a smaller pot.
02:36I want less water.
02:37When pasta cooks, it gives off starch.
02:40I want this water to be extra starchy.
02:41So when we add it to our pasta,
02:44that starch will help bring the sauce together.
02:46Generally for pasta dishes,
02:48I would use a larger pot with a lot more salt.
02:51But because we're using Parmesan, it's super salty
02:53and I don't want this dish to be over salted.
02:55So I'm just gonna use a little bit of salt in my water.
02:58I'm not gonna go crazy.
02:59I just want some seasoning to get in the pasta.
03:01I chose to use dry pasta in the box.
03:03Now, a lot of people say,
03:04well, Italy, they all eat fresh pasta all the time,
03:07but that's not really true.
03:08A lot of people use dry pasta in Italy.
03:10You could use fresh if you want.
03:12It's up to you, but I like to use dry.
03:14It has a little more starch to it
03:16and I like the way it comes out a little bit better.
03:18You wanna try and find the best pasta
03:21that you can afford
03:22because it's gonna make the dish better.
03:23Because this dish has so few ingredients,
03:25every ingredient matters.
03:26A lot of times chefs will say they want their pasta al dente.
03:29Al dente means to the tooth,
03:30which means there's a little bit of bite.
03:32You bite into your pasta, there's no white center,
03:34but it has some chew to it.
03:36I'm going just past al dente here.
03:38So you can see as I stir the pasta, the water gets cloudy.
03:41And that's what I want.
03:42That cloudiness is the starch washing off of the pasta.
03:45I'm using a butter with high butter fat.
03:47It's a little creamier.
03:49There's less liquid or solids in this.
03:51I've used this Plugra or Kerrygold unsalted butter.
03:54So I would try and find a European butter.
03:56This will really help the emulsification
03:58and help the dish come together.
04:00This pasta comes together really quick.
04:01Have your plates ready to go.
04:03Have all of your other mise en place ready to go
04:05and serve the pasta to your guests immediately.
04:09The best way to check if your pasta is done
04:11is to actually taste the piece.
04:13People say, oh, throw it against the wall.
04:14No, it just says our pasta is starchy.
04:17It's good.
04:18I think it needs another half a minute and we're good to go.
04:20Once this pasta is cooked, we need to go quickly.
04:23It is not something you can kind of wait around and chat.
04:26You want to have everything ready to go.
04:27Basically, I'm using the pound, pound, pound rule.
04:30You got a pound of pasta, a pound of butter
04:32and a pound of cheese.
04:33And it seems like a lot, but again,
04:34this dish is super luxurious
04:36and meant to be eaten in smaller quantities.
04:38So we're not going to skimp on anything.
04:40We got lots of cheese.
04:41We got lots of butter and we got beautiful starchy pasta.
04:44Deep cleansing breath.
04:45Let's start.
04:46The pasta is ready to go.
04:47So I'm going to shut my water off.
04:49Notice I don't have a colander or a spider
04:51or anything strainer.
04:53What I'm going to do is take my pasta
04:54directly out of the water,
04:56let it drain for like a second
04:58and then drop it right into my butter.
05:00Some of that pasta water is clinging to my pasta
05:03and that's what I want.
05:04I'm not going to throw this pasta water away yet
05:06because I might need some to adjust the final dish.
05:09And this is where we start to mix, right?
05:12I'm going to start to melt my butter.
05:14And this is where the key of the technique is.
05:16We're going to continuously keep it moving.
05:18We want the butter to emulsify
05:21with that pasta water in the pasta.
05:23And I'm going to start adding cheese.
05:24You don't want to be shy with this cheese.
05:26Go a little crazy.
05:27I have a little extra cheese in case I need it,
05:29but we're going to mix, mix, mix.
05:31And because that I used the microplane on this,
05:33you'll see that my cheese kind of melts right away.
05:36We got to keep it moving, keep it moving, keep it moving.
05:39And that's what's the most important thing is here.
05:41I'm going to add a little more cheese.
05:43You could measure this out perfectly,
05:44but I'm going to do it by eye
05:45because I want this to look a certain way.
05:48I want it to look creamy and delicious.
05:51The main component here is the technique.
05:53Stir, stir, stir.
05:54We want to continue to stir
05:56until the sauce starts to look creamy.
05:58So you can see that my sauce is kind of tight.
06:00I can add pasta water.
06:02But look, once I add that water,
06:03you'll see that it starts to look creamier and creamier.
06:07I use a glass bowl for this
06:08because a metal bowl will disperse the heat,
06:11whereas a glass bowl holds that heat together.
06:13Nice, creamy sauce.
06:15It starts to look like we added heavy cream to this
06:18and we didn't add any heavy cream.
06:20It's all about the technique.
06:22That pasta and that cheese is emulsified.
06:24And that's what we want.
06:26It's all about the stirring
06:27and getting our pasta super creamy.
06:30You might be tempted to do this in a pan over a heat source.
06:32And the reason I chose a bowl
06:34is because if you overheat this sauce, it breaks.
06:37So you're going to have an oily mess
06:39where the cheese is in clumps
06:40and the butter breaks and gets greasy.
06:42When the butter breaks,
06:43that means that the fat and the solids separate.
06:45So you're going to get greasy, fatty stuff
06:48and chunks of butter solids and cheese.
06:50One of the most important things with fettuccine Alfredo
06:52is to get it on a plate
06:54and get it in your mouth as fast as possible.
06:56Let's plate this up.
06:57So we can go on the plate.
06:58You can see this super creamy.
07:00Now, if you have guests,
07:02you don't really have to put this on a platter.
07:03You can go directly onto their plates.
07:06But this is the presentation here.
07:08Look at how creamy that sauce is.
07:10And you can see why when this dish came over to America,
07:13people thought there was cream in it
07:15because it does actually look like
07:17there might be some cream in here,
07:19but it is just butter, pasta water, and Parmesan cheese.
07:23Look at that.
07:24If that doesn't make you smile,
07:26you got no joy in your life, people.
07:29So I do have a little bowl of cheese here on the side
07:31in case you or your guests want to add more cheese,
07:34but I would suggest tasting it first the way it is.
07:37And if you need more cheese, add more cheese.
07:39To be honest with you,
07:40there is so much cheese in this dish already,
07:41they probably won't need it,
07:43but it's always good to give your guests the option.
07:46Let me go onto my plate.
07:48That is gorgeous.
07:49I'm gonna bring it close
07:50so I don't slop it all over myself.
07:52I'm not a spoon guy here.
07:54I just twist it around my fork, right?
07:59It's creamy, it's buttery.
08:01It's got some really nice bite from the Parmesan cheese.
08:04You don't need a big bowl of this.
08:05Give small portions.
08:07Absolutely delicious.
08:08Like who could you serve this to
08:09that would hate this?
08:10Remember, this is a super, super simple dish.
08:13It's all about the technique.
08:15You get that technique right,
08:16and it's gonna be beautiful.
08:17So you might have to practice,
08:19but it's well worth it.