Fettuccine Alfredo is one of those dishes everyone loves.
Rich, comforting, sensual, and entirely satisfying, strand after creamy strand. Indeed, the dish was originally created to restore the appetite of a new mother.
Back in the 1920s Alfredo Di Lelio ran a little restaurant on Rome’s Via della Scrofa, not far from the Piazzo Navona. His wife had just given birth to their first son, an experience that left her exhausted, without an appetite, and therefore without milk for the baby, which meant Alfredo had to stay up half night rocking a squalling infant. “It was really a hell of a life,” he wrote. “So one day I decided to take the bull by the horns and solve the problem once and for all.” He whipped up a dish of egg noodles, extra-rich butter, and the best parmigiano cheese he could find. Naturally, his wife gobbled up the noodles with gusto, and soon Alfredo began serving the dish in his restaurant.
The dish became legendary when Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford visited Rome in 1927 and ate at Alfredo’s place, proclaiming him the “king of fettuccine” and presenting him with a golden fork and spoon as a memento. From that moment the dish became part of a tradition among celebrities, who had to eat at Alfredo’s when in Rome-and to get their photos in one of the two competing Roman restaurants that now call themselves Alfredo’s.
During the war Alfredo retired, handing over the restaurant to two of his waiters, but afterward decided to open a new place called Alfredo l’Originale. Over the years both places have claimed to be the “original” Alfredo’s, but the Di Lelio family is still in charge of the newer restaurant and has opened 3 other locations.
Alfredo’s own printed recipe is deliberately vague: “water-salt-extra fine flour of the
highest quality, mixed by hand with fresh eggs-a most carefully selected butter and finally Parmesan cheese, but not dried and aged Parmesan.”
You don’t necessarily need to know how to make Fettuccine Alfredo … just the best restaurant to order it and enjoy it!
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