Fettuccine History

Fettuccine or as americans say “Fettuccine Alfredo” are one of the most popular pasta dishes in the United States and have been a true symbol of Italian cuisine for several generations of Americans. Even today they can be found in overseas restaurants – less and less – and on supermarket shelves, as a ready-made sauce or packaged with precooked pasta.

The “Birth” of the Dish

The name given to this dish is by no means fake, as some might think, but it reveals its all-Italian origins. The famous Fettuccine Alfredo were in fact born in Rome by Alfredo Di Lelio in 1908 in the restaurant of his mother Angelina in Piazza Rosa, where the Alberto Sordi Gallery stands today. Their birth is described by the descendants as follows: “It all began when his wife Ines gave birth to their firstborn. The woman was very prostrate after the birth of little Alfredo II and her husband, worried about her health, did everything to make her regain her strength with healthy and nutritious food. It was here that the idea of ​​the dish was born, which will later become famous all over the world. With his own hands he prepared her fettuccine kneaded in semolina and seasoned with very fresh butter and Parmesan.

Then he made a prayer to St. Anna (protector of women in childbirth) and served this dish to Ines saying: ‘If you don’t like them, I’ll eat them!’. She not only ate them with pleasure, but even suggested that he add them to the menu of their small restaurant “. The introduction of the dish in a restaurant menu. Up to now nothing extraordinary: pasta topped with butter and Parmesan had existed in Italy for at least five centuries, indeed for a very long time it had been the only way to eat pasta. Alfredo di Lelio’s only “invention” was to propose a dish with hospital connotations (as the story itself suggests) on the menu of his restaurant.

 Alfredo’s fettuccine inebriated the two actors to such an extent that they brought the memory of it to Hollywood and, on a subsequent visit to the venue in 1927, they gave Alfredo two solid gold cutlery engraved with a dedication: “To Alfredo the King of the noodles “. The fame of the Fairbanks alone was enough to ensure the success in the States of this very simple dish of the Italian tradition. Since then, numerous personalities from the world of cinema, sport and politics passing through the capital tasted Alfredo’s specialty, increasing his notoriety.

The American Version

The same preparation, once landed on the US coasts, has undergone a substantial change because fettuccine Alfredo are a simple dish, but by no means trivial if you want to get the right creaminess by whipping only butter and cheese. The Americans to reproduce the same effect (so to speak) have added cream as a third ingredient, which gives a velvety, greasy and opaque texture, but ensures the success of the dish.

Taste Italian Fettuccine: Buy Now!