Feb 11 2009
Fettucine Alfredo
Fettucine Alfredo is one of those dishes that is very simple to make, yet it doesn’t always turn out quite the way I want it to. So I decided to follow a recipe.
What a mistake!
There are apparently people out there who do enjoy lemon cream pasta (which is what this dish tasted like), but I am not one of them. At first I wasn’t sure how this recipe could garner 4 stars, but then I thought back to some other ratings I’ve seen on Food Network’s website. Let’s see, a number of people have given a recipe five stars without ever having made it (because it looked good!), others completely change the recipe and like the results (five stars for the chef’s version!), and I’m pretty sure at some point someone gave the recipe five stars because they liked her hair that day.
I followed the recipe for Giada’s Fettucine Alfredo, only cut it in half (her cookbook version).
I’m not going to post the actual recipe, because I don’t like it. A teaspoon or two of lemon juice would be nice (just a little to cut through the fat); the juice of 1 lemon (which is what her cookbook version called for), was absolutely atrocious. I love lemon, but this was ridiculous. I even left out the 2 tablespoons of lemon zest that the recipe called for; had I added that, I’m sure it would have been inedible. As it was, I ate little of my serving, but I really didn’t mind, because the result was I had more room for Meyer Lemon Mousse!
However, I will leave you with my thoughts on how I will make this dish next time.
Fettucine Alfredo
serves 4
9 oz fresh fettucine
1 c heavy cream
4 T butter
2 tsp lemon juice
1 c grated parmesan
freshly grated nutmeg
salt
pepper
In a medium saute pan heat the cream, lemon juice, and butter until the butter melts, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.
Bring a large pan of water to a boil, add a generous handful of salt. Add a drizzle of olive oil to prevent the water from foaming up too much while the pasta cooks. Add fettucine, cook for 3 minutes.
Remove fettucine from water and add to cream mixture, along with parmesan. Season with freshly grated nutmeg, salt, and pepper to taste. Garnish with shredded parmesan.
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This is pretty much how I had been making fettucine alfredo (minus the lemon juice), except I was adding the parmesan while the cream mixture was still over the flame, and it was clumping up. Adding the parmesan with the noodles to the sauce does the trick.
And finally, to anyone reading, if you are rating a recipe on a website and you make a significant change to it, please don’t give the original recipe a perfect rating; that’s not the dish you made and enjoyed.
