Friday, 20 November 2009

• Easy Fettuccine Alfredo

  
  

  Fettuccine Alfredo
  Cheese, Cream, Butter.  It's so easy to make, it's ridiculous.  Try it.
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  I looked up from the stove, and smiled at Chieko and June sitting at the dining table, laughing together by the window ten feet away.
  
  
  My hands moved quickly now.  Much more quickly than they did ten years ago.  Stirring the sauce.  Modulating the heat.  Grating the cheese.  Flipping the prawns on the grill.  Checking the loaf of Ciabatta bread in the oven.  Dicing, chopping, mincing, slicing.  Our bottle of wine was uncorked and poured between the three of us, and I took a generous gulp of my favorite Pinot Grigio from my favorite little winery in Napa Valley as I prepared dinner for us.  Ten years ago, this would have been a major production.  But now, it was a simple weeknight dinner for us.
  
  Tonight, I was making Fettuccine Alfredo by request for June.
  
  I can never make Fettuccine Alfredo without remembering the very first time I ever cooked for somebody I loved -- cooking for my best friend Katie in my parents shoddy apartment in the ghetto, because she had told me it was her favorite dish and I wanted to make it for her.
  
  I looked around me.  So much had changed in the last ten years.  I wasn't a poor kid living in the projects anymore.  Instead of a decaying, roach-infested leftover kitchen from the sixties with a half-working range to match; I was standing in my own kitchen in my own place, with granite counter-tops, a hardwood floor, and high-end appliances neatly tucked into their enclosures.  Instead of using my mother's shoddy, scratched up T-Fal cookware, I was using All-Clad everything.  And instead of eating on a flimsy secondhand metal table with a view of the concrete building next door, we were eating on a custom-made Brazilian mahogany table by an expansive floor-to-ceiling window with a view that was spectacular by any standard.
  
  But Katie wasn't here.  And having Fettuccine Alfredo never seemed right without her.
  
  
  
  
  

  * * * * *
  

  
  
  
  
  Katie told me she loved it.  In hindsight, it must have tasted horrible, but she told me she loved it anyway. 
  
  What did I know?  We were just kids then -- fifteen years old; and I was cooking the first thing I ever tried cooking that wasn't instant ramen or chef boyardee.  We had gone to a nice Italian restaurant two weeks earlier, and shared a dinner I could barely afford but I wanted to treat her to anyway.  My parents could never afford that sort of thing then, so I had never been to a place like that before.  She told me she loved Fettuccine Alfredo, and not having the money to take her out like this yet wanting to treat her to what she loved, I told her that I would make it for her.
  
  I closed my eyes, and for a moment, I could almost hear her voice.  Here, my best friend still here with me.  Still here to have this Fettuccine Alfredo, finally made the way it's supposed to be made.
  
  

  I use top-grade Plugra european butter now.  And fresh non-ultra-pasteurized cream.  Fleur de sel.  And Parmigiano Reggiano.  I roll out and cut my Fettuccine by hand now, because this dish needs fresh-made pasta.

  
  Katie was kind to me then, telling me that she loved the first Fettuccine Alfredo I ever made, with margarine, milk, sawdust parmesan in a green can, and cream cheese.  I scorched the sauce, it was clumpy and watery, and the pasta clung together, half-cooked in places and over-cooked in others.  She knew better, but it didn't matter to her.
  
  I still remember her face when she put the first twirled fork-full into her mouth.
  
  
  
  

  No one has ever made that face since.  And I know why.  It's because she never took it for granted.  It's because she knew exactly why I had made it for her --
  
  -- That I made it for her just because I knew SHE loved it. 
  
  She knew I couldn't afford much, but I did what I could.  And she knew I didn't know how to cook, but I was trying my damned hardest anyway.  Because I was the only person in her entire life that actually gave a damn about her in a world of dysfunctional people who said they cared but really didn't.

  
  
  
  Today, it doesn't matter what I make.  I could serve a Croquette of Foie Gras and Kogyoku Apple Confit in Black Truffle Demi Glace Reduction, and it would be pedestrian.  Because that's just what people expect from me now.  And I knew that yes, Chieko and June would appreciate the Fettuccine Alfredo that I was making for them by request -- but they would just eat it.  It wouldn't matter that I'm using the best ingredients that money can buy, cooked with the best equipment that money can buy, with hands that money can't buy or that I'm making it because I care for them.
  
  The love would be there, but they would never feel as loved as Katie did that night eating my disgusting mass of loving slop.
  
  
  
  
  

  * * * * *
  

  
  
  
  
  

  

  This stuff above.  This is all Fettuccine Alfredo is.
  

  
  
  
  This is the Ninth Week of IReallyLikeFood's Challenge Of The Week Showcase, featuring ingredients and themes which readers and contributors use as a base for creating dishes.
  
  This Ninth Week, it's a Theme:  Pasta
  
  If there's any one dish that has significant meaning to me, it's Fettuccine Alfredo.
  
  It's the first real dish I ever made.  It's also the one dish that holds the most weight for me, because it was also the first dish I ever made that led me to the mantra that I live by now -- that Food = Love; made for the only girl in my lifetime who ever loved me purely, simply, and unconditionally.
  
  We all begin somewhere when we start to cook.  This is where it began for me; and maybe this is where it will begin for you, reader, as well.
  
  Fettuccine Alfredo is a simple dish.  Possibly one of the most simple Pasta dishes to make, and yet most people either don't know how, don't try it, or are too afraid to try making it at home.  The fact is, it just takes a few steps:  Cream and Butter together, simmer, then grated Cheese.  And it's done.  Really, it's that simple.
  
  

  However, do not substitute ingredients with this dish.  You must use Butter, not margarine.  You must use Cream (or half-and-half), not milk.  You must use a decent fresh-grated Parmesan cheese, not the sawdust-tasting crap in the green can.  You really should use a Fresh Fettuccine from the refrigerated section, not the dried stuff in a box -- it makes a big difference.  You don't have to use Plugra or Fleur de Sel or Parmigiano Reggiano, but the quality will show through if you do because this is such a simple dish. 
  
  

  Fettuccine Alfredo is also a good introduction to Cream-based Pasta sauces.  Add some minced garlic, and you have a garlic cream sauce.  Add some pesto, and you have a Creamy Pesto.  Change the cheese even, to Gorgonzola maybe.  Once you make your first Fettuccine Alfredo and realize how easy it is, you'll realize how versatile this basic technique is, and how many different dishes you can make just by changing a little bit or adding a little something more.

  I hope you give this one a try, just so you can see how easy it is to make at home.

  
  I N G R E D I E N T S:
  
  

  1 1/2 Cups Cream or Half-and-Half
  5 Tbsp Unsalted Butter
  1 Cup Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese
  1lb (500g) Fresh Fettuccine
  
  Salt and Pepper/ Grated Nutmeg to taste
  

  
  
  P R O C E D U R E:
  
  

  Start by boiling your pasta water.
  
  
  
  
  When the water is at a rolling boil, add a bit of salt and add your Fettuccine.  Stir it around so it doesn't stick.  If you are using Fresh Fettuccine, you only need to boil for about 2 minutes.
  
  
  
  
  Combine your Cream and Butter in a saucepan or skillet.  Simmer for about 5 minutes, or until slightly thickened.
  
  
  
  
  Add your grated cheese in a few batches at a time, stirring as you go.  It should melt into the cream as you stir.
  
  
  
  
  Take your cooked Fettuccine, add it to the Sauce pan, and stir until the sauce is absorbed.  Feel free to simmer it a few minutes longer if you like, but otherwise...
   
  Done.  Easy right?
  
  Salt / Pepper/ Nutmeg to taste.
  
  
  
  
  Fettuccine Alfredo is usually served as a Starter dish in Italy in small portions, with grilled meat.  I like mine with some Grilled Prawns.  These are U-15 Tiger Prawns which I've marinated for 30 minutes in garlic, olive oil and chili peppers; and then grilled until just medium-rare.  Yes, that's Galbi up there.  I eat it with that too.
  
  

  
  

  
  

  Plate and Serve immediately, as Alfredo is best eaten immediately.
  Also, I like to crumble Parmesan Cheese off of the block as a garnish.
  

  
  
  
  
  

  * * * * *
  

  
  
  
  
  I exhaled a deep breath on my balcony, letting my hands and forearms rest on the wrought iron railing in front of me.
  
  I looked back in through the window, at Chieko and June doing the dishes in the kitchen.  Chieko, like June's big sister.  June, who reminded me of Katie before we started down into the dark places of this world together, ten years ago.  Before Katie fell.  Before I fell.  When we were pure, innocent beings, like June was, laughing as she flung soap bubbles at Chieko.
  
  I sighed.  June.  Chieko.  This beautiful home.  I looked down at myself.  The tailored, hand-stitched shirt I wore so casually now would have paid a whole month's rent for my parents back then.  And the watch on my wrist could have paid my father for nearly a year back then, as he worked long difficult hours so that I would have a chance in life.  I would have, then, if I could have.  But life is what it is now, not then. 
  
  Everything, all of this, every dish I ever cooked and all that I am -- all started there that night, in my parents kitchen in our apartment in the ghetto, with the Fettuccine Alfredo and Katie.  For better or for worse, that dinner changed the course of my life... but I knew all that I had now... it was blood money.  And I hated it.  If it hadn't been for Katie and the Fettuccine Alfredo, I would not be who I was now, where I was, what I was.  But we paid so much for it.  Katie followed me into the deep, dark places of this world, and she paid a toll more costly than mine.  We paid too much for it.
  
  I wondered, what my life would have been like... what our life would have been like, had we never had our Fettuccine Alfredo that night?
  
  Love and Aloha, from another time and place.
  

  
  

  
  Do you have any Foods that have Special Significance to you?  A Food that invokes a memory, or makes you remember a certain time, place, or person?  What, Who or When?
  
  NOTE:  Read the Comments, there's some really interesting/ cute/ sad/ heartwarming stories being posted there by readers!
  
  

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