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Alfredo Mateo Recipe | |
Italian Pasta | |
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Ingredients:
The Base:1 pound fettuccini 1 or 1/2 stick butter 1/4 cup lite cream (half of small) 1 egg separated 1/2 cup romano/parm/asiago The Rest:(options) 1 cup vodka 1 cup portabellies 1/2 cup shallots 2 tbsp real pesto (dont try from a tube) 1 meaty tomato diced large 1/4 cup homemade garden red sauce or organic diced tomatoes(do not use ragu)
Directions:
The key to this recipe is heat control. keep the heat on low to low/med for elec. or just visible flames on gas. when adding the cream, and egg, make sure it is cool enough to not curdle the cream or cook the egg. Take your time. you could complete these instructions in about 3 min on high and have to start over. take 20-30 min and you'll think youre at a restaurant.Alfredo(italian white sauce): Start by melting the butter in a 2qt sauce pan(make sure to never burn it!!! the white protien stuff that floats on butter is important for texture). Once melted, stir in the cheese and keep stiring until cheese looks liquid(sticks together and is stringy) SLOWLY add the cream, a little at a time and keep stiring. The cream and the cheese should bond to each other. Slowly add whipped egg white, keep stiring and let it reduce for a few minuites. Add salt and pepper to taste, add egg yolk for thicker/heartier texture. Cook long enough to kill salmonilla in egg, then pour over pasta. you will notice that what looked thick and heavy in the pot gets alot more soupy on the pasta, so make it extra thick. Mateo: This is the part where I get fancy. After eating this cheap, good, filling dish over and over again, you will get very bored of it. Here are three of my personal variations on this recipe that adds color, texture, and complexity. Mateo Verdi(my green sauce) Before adding cheese, cook garlic a little(don't fry that butter!) then add the pesto after the cream before the egg white. I do not use the yolk, but I do whip the egg until it PEAKS for this one, which gives it a lighter, fluffier texture. Mateo Pink(my pink/vodka sauce) If you dont know what a vodka sauce is, you should eat it at a restaurant first to know what youre aiming for. Add the vodka to the butter and let it boil(this is the only time its ok to overcook the butter because of the way the vodka behaves. Reduce until the alcohol taste is gone. add shallots, mushrooms optional. After adding the cheese, add the tomato chunks and cook for about 2 min. you want to get this awesome effect that happens 50% of the time where the tomato drinks up the juice but is still firm enough to keep its shape. They act like little flavor pockets in the final sauce. This happens best when it is the very last ingredient, and not too much time is spent reducing the egg. If the sauce is not red enough, add the premade red sauce, but be careful because the taste of even good store bought sauce can easily overpower all your hard work. This one is my favorite for impressing people, do it right and you'll blow em away. Mateo Brown(my brown/gray sauce) before adding the cream, add the mushrooms and saute. watch them drink up the butter, then release it again (this is where it gets brown) add shallots and saute more. This one is real good with the yolk added.
I grew up in northeast Jersey, a place with more tiny italian restaurants per capita than anywhere. It was here that i developed a taste for good food, but i took its availability for granted. When I moved to upstate NY a few years back, that availability was greatly reduced to two expensive bungling bistros and a pizza hut. I found a feti. alf. recipe on the back of a pasta box (it sucked but the ingredients were right) which i altered and altered until it matched my memory. over time, I got bored and began to improvise. What I have realized is the reason you cant find a good alfredo recipe is because it is actually a simple base for a lot of other recipes, and is not considered by chefs to be a dish.
serves 4ish as main course, 8 as a side
This is not for the faint of heart.
You can make this with much less effort than I give, but it will be grainy or chunky, or too thin, and depending on your personal taste you may take more time the second time around. Remember: Patience is a virtue, and the reward is delish.
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