Fettuccine Alfredo

Fettuccine Alfredo or fettuccine al burro ("fettuccine with butter") is an Italian pasta dish of fresh fettuccine tossed with butter and parmesan. As the cheese melts, it emulsifies the liquids to form a smooth and rich cheese sauce coating the pasta. The dish is named after Alfredo Di Lelio, who featured the dish at his restaurant in Rome in the early to mid-20th century; the "ceremony" of preparing it tableside was an integral part of the dish. The dish became widespread and eventually spread to the United States, where it remains popular. The recipe has changed, and its commercialized version—with heavy cream and other ingredients—is now ubiquitous. In the U.S., it is often served as a main course, sometimes garnished with chicken or other ingredients. In Italy, meanwhile, fettuccine al burro is generally considered home cooking, and fettuccine Alfredo is widely scoffed at by Italian writers. History Serving fettuccine with butter and cheese was first mentioned in a 15th-century recipe for maccaroni romaneschi ("Roman pasta") by Martino da Como, a northern Italian cook active in Rome; the recipe calls for cooking the pasta in broth or water and adding butter, "good cheese" (the variety is not specified) and "sweet spices". Modern fettuccine Alfredo was invented by Alfredo Di Lelio in Rome. According to family accounts, in 1892 Alfredo Di Lelio began to work in a restaurant that was located in piazza Rosa and run by his mother Angelina. Di Lelio invented "fettuccine al triplo burro" (later named "fettuccine all'Alfredo" or "fettuccine Alfredo") in 1907 or 1908 in an effort to entice his wife, Ines, to eat after giving birth to their first child Armando. Alfredo added extra butter or triplo burro to the fettuccine when mixing it together for her. Piazza Rosa disappeared in 1910 following the construction of the Galleria Colonna/Sordi, and the restaurant was forced to close. Di Lelio later opened his own restaurant, Alfredo alla Scrofa, then called "Alfredo", in 1914 on the via della Scrofa in central Rome.