The Best Fettuccine Alfredo You’ll Ever Make (Restaurant-Quality)

I'm Frank Proto,

professional chef and culinary instructor,

and today I'm gonna show you

how to make the best fettuccine Alfredo at home.

We're talking silky, creamy, classic fettuccine Alfredo.

This is Fettuccine Alfredo 101.

Fettuccine Alfredo is a classic dish

that you normally don't see in restaurants in Italy.

It's basically pasta with butter and Parmesan,

pasta al burro or pasta con parmigiano e burro.

The American version of fettuccine Alfredo uses cream.

This is more the original version

that came from Italy to America.

Real fettuccine Alfredo, it only has three ingredients:

butter, Parmesan cheese, and pasta.

It's all about the technique, and once you get that down,

you're gonna make it perfectly every time at home.

One thing I talk about all the time is mise en place.

This dish comes together really quickly,

so you have to have everything close by.

One of the main ingredients in our fettuccine Alfredo

is Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.

It is really, really important

that you use real Parmigiano Reggiano from Italy.

You can tell that it's real

because it's gonna be stamped

Parmigiano Reggiano on the outside.

You're gonna see that rind.

The Parmigiano Reggiano and the butter,

when you mix it together,

emulsifies the sauce and makes it creamy.

One of the key factors of this dish

is getting good ingredients.

Because there are so few ingredients,

getting the best you can afford is really, really important.

So I'm gonna start grating my cheese.

It's really important that your Parmesan cheese

be finely grated.

I'm using a Microplane.

If you don't have a Microplane, you can grate it on a grater

and then sift it or strain it

just to get the big chunks out.

But I want this cheese to be nice and fine

so that it melts once it gets hot.

So you can see that this Microplane does that really well.

Part of the reason I don't use pre-grated cheese

is that I can't tell if it's real, right?

Someone could be selling me Parmesan cheese

and I don't see the rind, so I don't really trust it.

Second of all, it's usually not ground fine enough,

and a lot of times when you buy pre-grated cheese,

there are things in the cheese

that will stop it from clumping,

like they'll use anti-caking ingredients,

and that does not do well for us

when it comes to making the finished dish.

Sometimes also in pre-grated cheese, it's very moist,

and this cheese is usually super dry,

and that makes our product a little stringy in the end.

So grate your own cheese, it's worth it.

So it does look like a lot of cheese,

and I'm basically gonna use like three quarters of a pound

or a pound of cheese to a pound of pasta.

It's indulgent. This is a luxurious dish.

It is cheesy, it is rich. Don't skimp on the cheese here.

The cheese is grated.

And what's funny about this dish

is this is really the only action

or the only mise en place you have to do.

Have a pot of boiling water,

and usually chefs tell people

to use a large pot of boiling water.

In this case, I want a smaller pot. I want less water.

When pasta cooks, it gives off starch.

I want this water to be extra starchy,

so when we add it to our pasta,

that starch will help bring the sauce together.

Generally, for pasta dishes,

I would use a larger pot with a lot more salt,

but because we're using Parmesan, it's super salty,

and I don't want this dish to be over-salted.

So I'm just gonna use a little bit of salt in my water.

I'm not gonna go crazy.

I just want some seasoning to get in the pasta.

I chose to use dry pasta in the box.

Now, a lot of people say,

Well, in Italy, they all eat fresh pasta all the time,

but that's not really true.

A lot of people use dry pasta in Italy.

You could use fresh if you want. It's up to you.

But I like to use dry.

It has a little more starch to it,

and I like the way it comes out a little bit better.

You wanna try and find the best pasta that you can afford

because it's gonna make the dish better.

Because this dish has so few ingredients,

every ingredient matters.

A lot of times chefs will say

they want their pasta al dente.

Al dente means to the tooth,

which means there's a little bit of bite.

You bite into your pasta, there's no white center,

but it has some chew to it.

I'm going just past al dente here.

So you can see as I stir the pasta, the water gets cloudy,

and that's what I want.

That cloudiness is the starch washing off of the pasta.

I'm using a butter with high butter fat.

It's a little creamier.

There's less liquid or solids in this.

I've used this Plugra or Kerrygold unsalted butter.

So I would try and find a European butter.

This will really help the emulsification

to help the dish come together.

This pasta comes together really quick.

Have your plates ready to go.

Have all of your other mise en place ready to go

and serve the pasta to your guest immediately.

The best way to check if your pasta is done

is to actually taste the piece.

People will say, Oh, throw it against the wall.

No, it just says our pasta is starchy.

It's good.

I think it needs another half a minute,

and we're good to go.

Once this pasta is cooked, we need to go quickly.

It is not something you can kind of wait around and chat.

You wanna have everything ready to go.

Basically, I'm using the pound, pound, pound rule.

I got a pound of pasta, a pound of butter,

and a pound of cheese.

And it seems like a lot,

but again, this dish is super luxurious

and meant to be eaten in smaller quantities,

so we're not gonna skimp on anything.

We got lots of cheese, we got lots of butter,

and we got beautiful starchy pasta.

Deep cleansing breath. Let's start.

The pasta is ready to go, so I'm gonna shut my water off.

Notice I don't have a colander or a spider

or anything, strainer.

What I'm gonna do is take my pasta

directly out of the water,

let it drain for like a second,

and then drop it right into my butter.

Some of that pasta water is clinging to my pasta,

and that's what I want.

I'm not gonna throw this pasta water away yet

because I might need some to adjust the final dish.

And this is where we start to mix, right?

I'm gonna start to melt my butter,

and this is where the key of the technique is.

We're gonna continuously keep it moving.

We want the butter

to emulsify with that pasta water and the pasta,

and I'm gonna start adding cheese.

You don't wanna be shy with this cheese. Go a little crazy.

I have a little extra cheese in case I need it,

but we're gonna mix, mix, mix.

And because that I use the Microplane on this,

you'll see that my cheese kind of melts right away.

We gotta keep it moving, keep it moving, keep it moving,

and that's what's the most important thing is here.

I'm gonna add a little more cheese.

You could measure this out perfectly,

but I'm gonna do it by eye

because I want this to look a certain way.

I want it to look creamy and delicious.

The main component here is the technique, stir, stir, stir.

We want to continue to stir

until the sauce starts to look creamy.

So you can see that my sauce is kind of tight.

I can add pasta water,

but look, once I add that water,

you'll see that it starts to look creamier and creamier.

I use a glass bowl for this

because a metal bowl will disperse the heat,

whereas a glass bowl holds that heat together.

Nice, creamy sauce.

It starts to look like we added heavy cream to this,

and we didn't add any heavy cream.

It's all about the technique.

That pasta and that cheese is emulsified,

and that's what we want.

It's all about the stirring

and getting our pasta super creamy.

You might be tempted to do this in a pan over a heat source.

And the reason I chose a bowl

is because if you overheat this sauce, it breaks.

So you're gonna have an oily mess

with the cheeses in clumps,

and the butter breaks and gets greasy.

When the butter breaks,

that means that the fat and the solids separate,

so you're gonna get greasy fatty stuff

and chunks of butter solids and cheese.

One of the most important things with fettuccine Alfredo

is to get it on a plate

and get it in your mouth as fast as possible.

Let's plate this up.

So we can go on the plate. You can see this is super creamy.

Now, if you have guests,

you don't really have to put this on a platter,

you can go directly onto their plates,

but this is the presentation here.

Look at how creamy that sauce is.

And you can see why when this dish came over to America,

people thought there was cream in it

because it does actually look

like there might be some cream in here,

but it is just butter, pasta water, and Parmesan cheese.

Look at that.

If that doesn't make you smile,

you got no joy in your life, people.

So I do have a little bowl of cheese here on the side

in case you or your guests want to add more cheese,

but I would suggest tasting it first the way it is.

And if you need more cheese, add more cheese.

To be honest with you,

there is so much cheese in this dish already,

they probably won't need it,

but it's always good to give your guests the option.

Let me go onto my plate.

That is gorgeous.

I'm gonna bring it close so I don't slop it all over myself.

I'm not a spoon guy here.

I just twist it around my fork, right?

Hmm. It's creamy, it's buttery.

It's got some really nice bite from the Parmesan cheese.

You don't need a big bowl of this. Give small portions.

Absolutely delicious.

Like, who could you serve this to that would hate this?

Remember, this is a super, super simple dish.

It's all about the technique.

You get that technique right and it's gonna be beautiful.

So you might have to practice, but it's well worth it.