The real recipe and the process to prepare the first dish that has made the Hollywood stars go crazy in the years of the Dolce Vita – and that since then is thought to be American
Let's debunk a myth: Alfredo fettuccine is not an American recipe. For over a hundred years they have been an all-Roman pride, which took life in the heart of the capital, in via della Scrofa, and that each 7 February is celebrated with a dedicated day.
The story tells that the fettuccine Alfredo born in 1907 in Via della Scrofa 104. Alfredo Di Lelio wanted to please his wife Ines who was expecting a baby and wanted an energetic paste for her baby. Thus began a legend based on only three ingredients: fettuccine, butter and parmesan. Alfredo himself later opened his restaurant in 1914, Alfredo alla Scrofa, who was visited – in the 1920s, after the war – by two stars of the silent cinema, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, on their honeymoon in Europe. The two taste the famous fettuccine and remain shocked. On their return to the States they tell of their gastronomic thunderbolt and send to Alfredo, in memory of their experience, a pair of golden cutlery, fork and spoon, with their dedication to "the king of fettuccine".
The fettuccine of the Hollywood stars
The dish has spread like this in America, not without mystifications and simplifications of a recipe that is so simple in the ingredients, but that requires a consolidated technique and dozens of tests in the field. To tell the story and the process of this dish, as it was passed down generation after generation, is Mario Mozzetti, heir of those Mozzetti that took over the restaurant from Alfredo Di Lelio himself in the years of Dolce Vita. It was in those years that the fame of this first dish was consolidated as the favorite of the Hollywood stars, along with the success of this restaurant in the Rome of the golden years: the Rome-US bridge was definitely built. Please note, there is another Roman restaurant named after Alfredo who claims the paternity of the dish, Il vero Alfredo all'Augusteo. The second can boast descendants directed by Alfredo Di Lelio, but his headquarters opened in the fifties in Piazza Augusto Imperatore. Here too there are the famous golden cutlery with lots of dedication, but Mozzetti guarantees to have documents that prove that Alfredo alla Scrofa is the restaurant where the two stars of the silent cinema went. There are also some small differences in the interpretation of the recipe, so if you're curious, the advice is to taste both versions.
The ingredients of Alfredo
As anticipated, there are only three, but all three need special attention. Alfredo's fettuccine are particularly thin. The restaurant in via della Scrofa has its own pasta factory that supplies them, but for those who want to make them at home, just mix with eggs, flour and semolina and use the pasta machine, thinning the pastry to the last tooth. For what concern butter, thirty grams per serving, from Alfredo it is used that of Beppino Occelli, which is kept to a soft consistency and laid before creaming on the oval dish in which you finish the pasta. Finally the Parmigiano Reggiano 24 months, 70g per serving, grated and passed through a sieve, in order to keep only the Parmesan powder. It's the secret, guarantees Mozzetti, "to avoid the pallette". For the rest, boiling salted water, remembering that the cooking water is used in creaming.
The execution
When the water for the pasta bubbles begins the dance. You put the coarse salt and lower the fettuccine. Cooking is related to the thickness, however at most a few minutes. "Our are so thin that they cook in 30 seconds – says Mozzetti – and are not drained, but taken with a fork paying attention not to break them and placed on the oval dish with soft butter, stretching for the long. In this way, pasta cooking water also comes together ". The right amount of water is the secret to work on and try out tests to get the perfect consistency of the cream: if it is too much it will be brothy, if too little will be dry. The parmesan previously prepared is then sprinkled in quantity on the fettuccine completely covering the plate and goes on stage. The oval dish goes into the dining room and the waiter proceeds with creaming directly on the table. "Over the years we have trained generations of pasta masters of fettuccine Alfredo". The main difficulty is not to break the thin fettuccine, while giving life to the famous cream that has made Alfredo famous in the world.
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