Fettuccine Alfredo

I’m a sucker for creamy pasta dishes, especially ones that cook in one pot (one pot pastas = silkier sauce and less cleaning!). This dinner is quick and easy to whip up but tastes dreamy.

Ingredients

500 g fettuccine

4 spring onions, chopped

4 garlic cloves, crushed

2 tsp Dijon mustard

1 L chicken stock

600 ml cream

200 g grana padano or parmesan, grated (plus extra for serving)

500 g mushrooms, sliced

80 g butter

¼ cup parsley, chopped

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Ingredients

1 lb fettuccine

4 spring onions, chopped

4 garlic cloves, crushed

2 tsp Dijon mustard

1 qt chicken stock

2.50 cups cream

7 oz grana padano or parmesan, grated (plus extra for serving)

1 lb mushrooms, sliced

3 oz butter

¼ cup parsley, chopped

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Ingredients note

The mushrooms are entirely optional; they’re certainly not a traditional ingredient in Fettuccine Alfredo, but this is also not a traditional recipe. The flavour of the mushrooms amplifies the savouriness of this dish, but if your decide to omit them, reduce the butter to 2 tablespoons (30g).
You can use heavy or light cream (or half and half) depending on what you have at hand. Full cream will enrich the dish, so if you’re after maximum flavour I highly recommend this option. If you want to save a few calories, light cream is still delicous.

Variations

If you’re serving this for guests and want to jazz it up, you can serve the pasta in cheesy cob loaves. It does make the meal extra decadent though, so I recommend no side dishes and small cob loaves (you’ll get about 4 serves in small cob loaves).

For a bit of extra flavour and decoration, you can top this dish with some crispy proscuitto or jamon.

Directions

Cook the vegetables

1. Add half the butter to a large pot (or, if you’re omitting the mushrooms, add the entire reduced amount of butter – see ingredient notes). Put the pot over medium heat until the butter is melted and lightly bubbling.

2. Add the spring onions and garlic, and saute until the spring onions have softened, about 2 minutes.

3. Add the rest of the butter and the mushrooms. Cook, stirring occassionally, until the mushrooms are softened.

Make the pasta sauce

1. Add the mustard, salt and pepper, and stir. Then add the stock and half the cream, and bring to a simmer.

2. Add the fettuccine and, for the first few minutes, move it around with a fork and use the fork to break up the pasta strands.

Tip: It’s important to stir the pasta continuously for the first few minutes to avoid the pasta sticking together.

3. Cook the pasta at a simmer for about 20 minutes, until the pasta is al dente. Keep stirring the pasta occassionally and try to make sure that the pasta is mostly covered by the liquid. If the sauce becomes too dry, add a small amount of water.

Tip: Pasta cooked directly in a sauce rather than in boiling water will always take longer to cook than the instructions on the packet state. So it’s important to taste the pasta toward the end of cooking so you know when it’s ‘al dente’ (this translates to ‘to the tooth’, and means the pasta is softened but not soggy, and still has some texture when you bite into it).

4. Add the rest of the cream, parsley and cheese (reserving some for serving), and stir over low heat just until the cheese is melted and the sauce is smooth. It may look like there’s too much sauce, and that’s a good thing! The sauce will thicken very quickly once the heat is turned off.

5. Serve, topped with reserved cheese and garnished with parsley.

To reheat: Can be refrigerated for a few days and reheated. It reheats best on the stovetop over low heat, with a few tablespoons of water added per serve.

Wine pairing

Any rich white wine will pair beautifully with this rich sauce. Chardonnay would be the typical pairing here, but if you want something that will provide a little flavour contrast but still has the weight to stand up to this creamy dish, try a Fiano. A Semillon, ideally with a little bit of age, will also pair well.