Holiday Fettuccine Alfredo Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What can I add to fettuccine Alfredo to make it taste better? ›

You could just add garlic powder, sure, but quickly sautéeing fresh garlic while your pasta cooks is a great way to layer flavor. Resnick likes to add spinach as a way to cut the richness of the sauce. Add a tablespoon or so of olive oil and a few cloves of minced garlic in a sautée pan over medium heat.

In Italy, Christmas Eve is often a day when no meat is eaten. So a pasta dish such as fettuccine is a traditional option.

- Add chopped fresh herbs such as parsley, basil, or thyme to the Alfredo sauce for a burst of freshness and color. Simply stir the herbs into the sauce just before serving. Easy!

Heartier herbs like thyme or oregano can be added in to simmer with the sauce. Add delicate herbs like parsley, basil, or chervil at the end to maintain their delicate, aromatic flavor. Quick tip: Swirl in a bit of leftover pesto to add another herbaceous twist to your Alfredo sauce.

Dress up a dull jar of Alfredo with a drizzle of infused oil. Infused oils are olive oils that have been mixed with fresh ingredients and allowed to marinate together to create an aromatic oil. Fresh herbs are commonly infused in olive oil, and garlic and spicy chilies also work well.

Stir in big handfuls of spinach, Kale mushrooms, zucchini, onions, broccoli, spinach, squash, or grape tomatoes after the pasta is cooked. You can also substitute zucchini (zoodles) for the pasta.

In Italy, Christmas Eve dinner is traditionally lighter with no meat and a lot of seafood, while the Italian-American meal has evolved into much more of a feast. Bring on the sword fish, tuna, salmon, octopus salad, smelts, calamari, spaghetti with clam sauce and the famous Italian classic—salted cod, known as baccalà.

An Italian Christmas Eve—only fish, please!

According to tradition, the meal for Christmas Eve, La Vigilia, doesn't have any meat. It's all fish and vegetables.

Dutch Christmas dinners usually consist of venison, goose, hare, or turkey with plenty of vegetables and Kerstbrood (Christmas bread). The Dutch also celebrate by eating gourmetten, a hot plate on which diners place a set of mini pans containing their choice of meat or vegetables.

Add Cheese

The key ingredient in Alfredo sauce is cheese—generally Parmigiano Reggiano—and lots of it. To thicken Alfredo sauce, simply add more cheese than the amount called for in a recipe until you achieve the consistency you want.

What makes fettuccine alfredo so good? ›

The lightness of the dough is perfectly balanced by the creamy sauce of melted butter and cheese: very simple and effective. Alfredo's wife is back on her feet again. The dish proves successful in flavor among Alfredo's friends too and eventually enters the restaurant's menu as “Fettuccine all'Alfredo”.

The key is to add a little bit of liquid. The most common thinner for any creamy sauce is milk, however, you can also use other liquids like water, broth, or cream. Note that the liquid has to contain moisture so it can actually work, which is why melted butter won't do.

Adding that starchy pasta-cooking water to the sauce helps emulsify it, ensuring it's smooth and creamy.

Here are some simple tips to enhance the taste of dry pasta: Add salt to the cooking water: While boiling the pasta, add a generous amount of salt to the water. This will help season the pasta from within, making it taste better. Use a flavorful sauce: A delicious sauce can elevate the taste of the pasta.

The way you'll do it is by putting all your leftovers in a small saucepan, then heat it on medium-low heat. Then, add in a splash of milk or cream when it starts to heat up. Give it a good stir with a wooden spoon and increase to medium heat. It will start to simmer, but don't let it bubble any more than that.

Cornstarch

The easiest way to accomplish this is to mix about a spoonful of cornstarch to 2 spoonfuls of liquid – it could be water or chicken stock or even milk. You will add this mixture, also called a slurry to the sauce and as it starts to cook, the sauce will thicken.