Make This Simple but Classic Fettuccine Alfredo Recipe (2024)

Danilo Alfaro

Danilo Alfaro has published more than 800 recipes and tutorials focused on making complicated culinary techniques approachable to home cooks.

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Updated on 02/20/23

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Prep: 5 mins

Cook: 20 mins

Total: 25 mins

Servings: 4to 6 servings

88 ratings

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This classic fettuccine Alfredo is made with cream, butter, Parmesan cheese, and parsley. It's a pasta comfort food at its finest, an Italian dish made with just a few basic ingredients that most home cooks are likely to have on hand.

As with any recipe that has few ingredients, it is important that each one is fresh and of the best quality you can get. Make sure you use freshly grated Parmesan cheese—the kind you buy in a block and grate yourself, not the kind from a can.

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You also want to use fresh parsley and not dried, if possible. For a special treat, buy fresh fettuccine instead of using dried pasta from a box—or make your own homemade pasta.Fettuccine is a fresh pasta that's not hard to make.

Make This Simple but Classic Fettuccine Alfredo Recipe (3)

Ingredients

Kosher salt, to taste
1 pound dried fettuccine
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cups Parmesan cheese, freshly grated, plus more for garnish
2 tablespoons fresh Italian parsley, chopped, plus more for garnish
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Steps to Make It

Gather the ingredients.
Fill a large stockpot with cold water and add a handful or so of kosher salt. Stir and taste; it should taste like seawater. Cover pot and heat water until it boils.
Drop fettuccine into boiling salted water and cook according to package instructions, about 6 to 9 minutes, or until al dente, tender, but still firm to the bite.
While fettuccine cooks, heat butter and cream in a large sauté pan over medium-low heat until it starts to bubble.
Lower heat and simmer gently for about 15 minutes or until sauce has reduced somewhat. Remove from heat.
Add cheese and toss until fully mixed. Adjust consistency with additional cream if necessary.
Stir in chopped parsley. Season to taste with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Drain fettuccine and toss with Alfredo sauce.
If desired, sprinkle with additional Parmesan cheeseand garnish with additional chopped parsley.

Recipe Variations

You can make fettuccine Alfredo even more special by adding protein or vegetables. Some grilled chicken, sliced into strips, is great, and so is cooked shrimp.
For a vegetarian Alfredo, toss in somesautéed mushrooms or steamed asparagus.Peas, broccoli, and/or sliced green onion tops are also a nice addition to any version of fettuccine Alfredo.
If you are eating vegan, there are a few ways to alter this recipe to accommodate your needs, whether you use a dairy-free roux in place of the cheese or tofu and vegan cream cheese.
Sauté 2 to 3 cloves of garlic, minced, in half of the butter for about 2 minutes. Add to the cream along with the remaining butter pieces and continue with the recipe.
Make it a spicy chicken Alfredo. Slice 4 chicken tenderloins into small pieces. Brown the chicken in a small amount of vegetable oil or butter in a skillet. Sprinkle with seasoned salt or Cajun or Creole seasoning. Toss the cooked chicken with the fettuccine and sauce.

Tip

When making cream-based sauces, you might be tempted to substitute milk or half-and-half for the heavy cream, but these ingredients do not behave the same way in the pan. Milk and half-and-half will curdle when simmered, but heavy cream is more stable, which is why it's the choice for cream sauces.

How to Store and Freeze Fettuccine Alfredo

Fettuccine Alfredo will keep covered in the refrigerator for three to five days. If you would like to freeze this dish, it's advisable to undercook the pasta slightly. This way, when you freeze and reheat it, the pasta will be tender and not mushy.

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Nutrition Facts (per serving)
626	Calories
51g	Fat
29g	Carbs
14g	Protein

Show Full Nutrition Label

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 4to 6
Amount per serving
Calories	626
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 51g	66%
Saturated Fat 32g	159%
Cholesterol 152mg	51%
Sodium 531mg	23%
Total Carbohydrate 29g	11%
Dietary Fiber 1g	4%
Total Sugars 3g
Protein 14g
Vitamin C 2mg	11%
Calcium 282mg	22%
Iron 1mg	7%
Potassium 206mg	4%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

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