Fettuccine Alfredo is a pasta dish made from freshly made fettuccine tossed only with Parmigiano-Reggiano and butter.
This was my first attempt at making it and I wanted to make the sauce from scratch. I chose this ‘food network’ recipe as a base to experiment from and the results were simply amazing. The addition of 2 cups of heavy cream might have had something to do with this :).
I used an Australian made Parmesan rather than certified Parmigiano-Reggiano which is only made in one of several regions in northern France. I certainly will be using it next time for a comparison. [ edit – I did 🙂 ]
Similarly, although I used San Remo Brand’s Traditional Egg Fettuccine No 77 and thought it an excellent product, I am going to be making my own fettuccine next time. [ edit – I did 🙂 ]
You will be:
- Boiling the pasta.
- Cooking the bacon and chicken.
- Making the alfredo sauce.
- Combining everything and serving hot.
You will need:
- Ingredients:
- a couple slugs of olive oil
- 225g fettuccine
- 2 chicken breasts, skin off, cut into thin but wide slices (see photos below)
- a handful of bacon rashers, finely chopped
- 8 Tbsp butter
- 2 cups heavy cream
- ground rock salt and ground black peppercorns to taste
- ground nutmeg to taste
- a very small handful of oregano, chopped
- 1.5 cups Parmigiano-Reggiano or Parmesan, finely grated
- Equipment:
- a chopping board
- a long sharp knife
- a large saucepan for the pasta
- a frypan
- a bowl to put the cooked chicken and bacon in
- a colander to drain the pasta
Boiling the pasta
- You are going to need 15 minutes to get everything else ready so put the pasta into boiling water with a slug of olive oil and a generous amount of salt.
- Whilst doing the recipe’s other steps, cook the pasta until molto al dente (I chuck the odd bit onto the kitchen tiles to test it, if it sticks it is ready) and remember that the last step in this recipe is to mix everything together and serve quickly.
Cooking the bacon and chicken
- Cook a good handful of chopped bacon in some olive oil until crispy, putting it aside and cleaning the frypan with paper towel. Return it to the heat.
- Melt 2 Tbsp of the butter in the frypan and cook the 2 chicken breasts worth of slices over medium heat. Remember that the slices won’t take long each side to cook through and the chicken will go chewy if you over cook it.
- Add the bacon back to the frypan and give everything a gentle toss.
- Put the chicken and bacon aside in a bowl and wipe clean the bottom of the frypan.
Bacon goodness:
Cook the chicken and combine the with the bacon:
Making the alfredo sauce
- Bring the frypan back to the heat and melt 6 Tbsp of butter.
- Whisk the 2 cups of heavy cream into the butter.
- Add the very small handful of chopped oregano, salt, pepper and at least one pinch of ground nutmeg.
- Keep stirring gently for several minutes and then fold the 1.5 cups of finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Parmesan into the sauce.
Combining everything and serving hot
- Chuck the drained pasta, the chicken and the bacon into the sauce and gently mix everything together.
- Add large portions to the serving bowls and serve with cracked black peppercorns and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.
Enjoy,
PK
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The cooked bacon in this post looks delicious!