Fettuccine Alfredo Day

What the day is

Fettuccine Alfredo Day is observed on February 7. Two quite different dishes answer to the name, and the gap between them is the interesting part.

The Roman original is three ingredients: fresh fettuccine, a generous quantity of butter, and finely grated Parmigiano Reggiano, tossed with a little starchy pasta water until the fat and cheese emulsify into a glossy sauce. There is no cream in it, and no garlic.

The American version is a cream sauce, usually thickened and often served with chicken or shrimp. It is a legitimate dish in its own right and it is not what is served in Rome.

Origin and background

The dish is attributed to Alfredo di Lelio, a Roman restaurateur, who is said to have made it in the early twentieth century for his wife when she was struggling to eat after childbirth, the logic being that butter and cheese were rich, gentle and easy. Sources differ on the exact year, so the decade is safer than the date.

Its American fame came through tourism. The Hollywood stars Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford ate at his restaurant in the 1920s and returned home enthusiastic, and the dish spread through American Italian restaurants from there. As it traveled it picked up cream, which stabilizes the sauce and makes it far more forgiving on a busy restaurant line.

In Italy it never became a standard menu item. Pasta with butter and cheese is ordinary home cooking there, usually without a name attached.

How to take part

The original is genuinely difficult, because an emulsion of fat and cheese breaks easily.

• Use fresh egg fettuccine if you can, and cook it in less water than usual so the water is starchier.
• Take the pan off the heat before the cheese goes in. Direct heat makes Parmigiano seize into strings.
• Grate the cheese very finely and add it gradually, tossing constantly with a splash of pasta water.
• Use good butter and more of it than feels reasonable. That is the sauce.
• Serve immediately in warmed bowls. It waits for nobody.