fettucine all'Alfredo

This is one of the simplest, most satisfying and comforting pasta dishes one will find. It is the perfect sauce for fresh, home-made egg pasta. It takes but a few minutes to make, and it provides tasting delight ten-fold.

Alfredo, the owner of a restaurant in Rome, made this dish famous. The sauce is also known as "alla panna", especially when used with tortellini.

for the sauce:

• 4 tablespoons sweet butter
• one cup heavy cream
• one-half to one cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (to one's taste)
• a pinch of nutmeg
• salt and freshly ground pepper

for the pasta:

• one pound of freshly-made egg pasta, fettucine or tagliatelli. This is also a perfect sauce for tortellini.

Put the butter and cream into a saute pan; turn the heat to medium and boil. Stir constantly. Boil until the cream reduces somewhat, almost half. Add the salt and pepper and the touch of nutmeg. Set aside.

Cook the pasta, in plenty of water (as in recipe following) until it is almost al dente. Drain it, shaking out the moisture.

Return the saute pan to medium heat. Add the pasta. Toss. Then slowly add the cheese, tossing thoroughly as adding. As always, serve immediately on warmed plates or bowls (a touch of parsley adds color) and enjoy!

A note on pasta fresca: there are four basic sizes (by width) of flat pasta fresca. Fettucine and tagliatelle are basically interchangeable, although true tagliatelle, which you would get in Bologna, is slightly wider. They are about one-quarter inch in width. Tagliolini is thinner: less than half the width of fettucine. If one is using a pasta machine, run the pasta through the wider cutter for fettucine and the smaller for tagliorini. Pappardelle is the widest of the fresh pastas, around three-quarters inches wide. It must be cut by hand.