Don't ask for Pasta Alfredo, please...
My wife is collecting in her new ebook a variety of misinterpretations of Italian cuisine. Today it's the turn of … Pasta Alfredo.
Alfredo Sauce or, Salsa Alfredo, is more of a myth than a reality and you are not going to find it in any real Italian recipe books. There is a restaurant in Rome which makes the original fettuccine Alfredo, but that is made with butter and Parmesan cheese. The only product that somehow resembles Salsa Alfredo (Alfredo Sauce) is called panna (which is a thicker version of whipping cream). I suggest you do not ask for Alfredo Sauce when you are in a restaurant because the vast majority of the people will not know what you are talking about.
posted by Paolo and Francesca Tosolini at 11:03 PM
5 Comments:
Wait a second... you mean restaurants in Italy, right? Most restaurants that serve Fettuccine Alfredo in the US that I know of would put Alfredo Sauce on it.
I thought Fettuccine Alfredo was invented by Alfred Di'Lelio in Rome?
Let me copy & paste an excerpt from our eBook regarding this topic:
"Alfredo Sauce or, Salsa Alfredo, is more of a myth than a reality and you are not going to find it in any real Italian recipe books. There is a restaurant in Rome which makes the original fettuccine Alfredo, but that is made with butter and Parmesan cheese. The only product that somehow resembles Salsa Alfredo (Alfredo Sauce) is called panna (which is a thicker version of whipping cream). I suggest you do not ask for Alfredo Sauce when you are in a restaurant because the vast majority of the people will not know what you are talking about."
Alfredo sauce (or whatever your name is)
I am sorry to dissappoint you but I am Italian (Italian from Italy and not Italian American) and will too tell you that if you go to a restaurant in Italy and ask for fettuccine Alfredo or whatever with Alfredo sauce, you will get a weird look and the response will be: "chi e' Alfredo? (Who's Alfredo?). I've been living in USA now for over a year and the first time I heard of fettuccine Alfredo was here in US. My reaction at the time was the same...."chi c...o e' Alfredo? (who the heck is Alfredo?)
Dora
Absolutely true, I'm also Italian (from Milano) and I was pretty surprised on a trip in the US seeing (and hearing) how these "Alfredo" pastas and sauces were supposedly Italian..there were people ready to swear that it is a tipical Italian dish...being a fairly good cook and a "buongustaio" (person known for his high standards in wine, food and anything good life has to offer) I did a little reseach. There was (70 years ago) a guy that had a Restaurant in Rome called "da Alfredo" that used to serve pasta, mainly fettuccine or penne, with butter and a passing of Parmesan cheese...but with time the preparartion became so diffused in the lower-class population that it actually became a "non-recepy"...this meaning that tipically when you don't want or don't have time to cook and are willing just to gobble something quick you just throw a piece of butter on the hot pasta and a handfull of Parmesan grated cheese...the taste is nothing special but it will treat your hunger. So tipically nobody in Italy would put on his restaurant's menu "penne al burro e formaggio" (penne butter&cheese) because clients would feel "presi per il culo" (cheated at) being this a really basic home plate tipically shoved by a tired mom in front of the hungry kids for supper. Nonetheless nobody in Italy remembers poor old "Alfredo" and his mid-low level restaurant. Possibly the Italian immigrants in the US, mostly coming from the lower-class, diffused this "recepy" in the early 1920-30s and ended up cheating at their american customers selling "pasta al burro" as if it was a famous and refined dish "alla Alfredo"... ;-D All in all if you go into a restaurant in Italy and ask for "pasta alla Alfredo" you would get a strange face as said in an other post.
I am an American but i have been living in Italia for the last 4 years. I have been to the restaurant you speak of "da Alfredo" and would say the pasta there is much better than anything you would find in USA. The history you speak of (the humble origin, serving just some pasta with burro e parmigiano when you do not have time or are too tired to fix anything else) makes me laugh because "da Alfredo" today is an upper-scale restaurant with men in white coats who serve you at your table!
I wonder...with SO MANY different types of primi in Italia, why are the Salsa Alfredo & the Bolognese the most popular to make it to America???
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