This blog post was originally posted on September 27, 2019 and was updated on January 29, 2021.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fettuccine Alfredo\u2014the real thing, anyway\u2014is served at just two restaurants in Italy, but its popularity has exploded abroad.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Everyone has heard of fettuccine Alfredo, sometimes called \u201cAlfredo pasta\u201d abroad. It’s so popular outside Italy that when I lived in Houston as a child, my 9-year-old friend Allison ordered it at a restaurant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently, lots of people loved Alfredo pasta in the States. Too bad its Americanized version would make Alfredo himself turn over in his grave. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Allison\u2019s Alfredo arrived at the table, it looked nothing like the original recipe I had tasted in Rome. The pasta was drenched in a white sauce (heavy cream, most likely)\u2014lots and lots of it. There were pieces of cheese that weren\u2019t Parmesan, and the worst part is that there was parsley. Parsley! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Allison ate her Americanized Alfredo, I thought to myself: \u201cYou can call that pasta whatever you want, but that\u2019s not Alfredo\u2019s pasta.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what is the real fettuccine Alfredo, anyway\u2014and how did it become so drastically different abroad?<\/p>\n\n\n

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The original fettuccine Alfredo<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The real Alfredo sauce is delicious because of its simplicity. The only ingredients are butter, Parmesan cheese and pepper. That\u2019s it! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You’ll find neither heavy cream nor parsley in the original recipe. And this type of pasta tastes best when made with fettuccine, an ideal pasta shape for capturing the creaminess of the sauce. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

READ MORE<\/em><\/strong>: <\/em>The Survival Guide to Pasta Shapes in Italy: How to Order Like You Know What You\u2019re Doing<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n