The Original Fettuccine Alfredo with No Cream
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@@komo2542 but this is an allusion to the video from 3 years ago. Really, I’m 3 years late.
restaurant workers "midnight pasta" a meal the closers would eat after the store was cleaned and closed up.!
I only saw the bottom half of the shirt, and thought it just said "At Garum" which I assumed was Latin wisdom of sum kind.
I hope the quote giver gets one free, if they want it :)
My brother was a waiter at a high class restaurant in Indiana, and he would routinely bring home leftovers. One week I was staying with him, I asked him to bring home some fettuccine alfredo, and apparently the restaurant didn't serve that. But he came home with it, and it was absolutely the best I've ever had. When I asked how he got it, he said one of the chefs was from Italy and he cooked it as they did where he was from, which is the same way shown in the video. But there were two differences, he used some herbs on top and used just a small amount of lemon. To this day still the best fettuccine alfredo I've ever had, 9 years later.
The lemon sounds amazing to cut through the creaminess.
I'm from Indiana! And a lover of authentic Italian food. Mind disclosing what restraunt this is in reference to?
@dakotadavis9597 I don't recall the name but its in downtown Valpo.
@@dakotadavis9597keep in mind that the information will get you nothing, as the poster daid: alfredo isnt on their menu. the chef did it as a special for the waiter
Sorry I doubt it, a pasta dish like the real fettucine Alfredo needs to be eaten right away. It would not age well as as a „left over“
I’m half Italian. So a whole half of my family is Italian. And pasta with butter and cheese was a favorite (comfort food) for a lot of us. When I deployed in the Marines on a ship, I asked for no sauce on my pasta and just added a few wrapped butter pieces and cheese to it, a sailor ran up to me and asked, “ are you Italian?! I’ve only seen Italians do that!” 😂
Nobody cares if you’re Italian bro💀
That's always how my daughter liked her pasta.
Dang. My mom did that and she's Armenian. Maybe it was an accident but I definitely picked up the habit. Years later I visited Veneto and it was a whole lotta butter and/or cheese pasta dishes. The perfect match for their lean, tart red wine (Barbaria?).
He was just miffed we didn't fall for their squid tricks. Improvise, adapt, and overcome... and pass the butter. One of the worst tastes I ever tasted was alleged tomato gravy at Parris Island. I'm not Italian at all, but we Acadians enjoy food, and that rarely included whatever it is the anchor clankers at the DoN think might be food.
Semper Fi!
My family would have noodles with olive oil and cheese on top...sometimes topped with olives if we had them.
A man being crowned "Knight of the Fettuccine" for his noodles is the most Italian thing I have ever heard.
I would like this comment but it's at 69 and I don't wanna ruin it
Also love your pp, love julius caesar!
I was just a kid when my dad, who was with the airlines, took the family to Italy. Along with art museums and historic sites, Alfredo's was on his list -- and so the first time I had fettuccine was actually at Alfredo's -- fed to me by Alfredo. I still have my signed menu, along with fond memories and a photo of me with Alfredo, even though that was more than half a century ago. It really is nothing like what most Americans know. Nice of you to set the record straight. Oh -- and for what it's worth -- the "man-handled" pasta in the photos was uncooked pasta that Alfredo kept around for photo opps. So not handling something anyone would eat.
Wow that's really cool! Thanks for sharing your experience. I did wonder if the pasta was just a prop hahah.
So cool! Lovely memory, thanks so much for sharing~
thats absolutely crazy..
That was a great memory!!! Thank you for sharing it with us!!! ❤❤❤
what an awesome experience!
The only thing that makes me happier than Fettuccine Alfredo is Max Miller explaining the history of it 👌
Big agree!
Max Miller is the best thing that happened to me during Lockdown Times.
Agree!! ❤🎉
You obviously haven't tried crack
After the parmesian ice cream, I'm convinced Max is in the pocket of big cheese. What a great video. 😊
I happen to know you bought your house from my brother, and I was delighted with this episode, because I made fettucine alfredo in that very kitchen about 25 years ago while I was babysitting my niece and nephew! It was always a home filled with love, joy, and peace. I wish you and Jose many happy years there... and much fettucine!
the house that fettuccine built
this is so wholesome
It is such a distinct look to the kitchen. It is a great backdrop for his videos.
So cool!
What a great coincidence!
So, basically, this is what I grew up with and raised my children with. My son heard and he was shocked. He's like, "I was raised with pasta like that." 😆 My stepmother is Italian American, and I found out that I'm also a good amount of Italian, and my biological mother had even raised me eating that, but with egg noodles.
this whole story is made up
SO bomb with egg noodles!
It's so good with egg noodles. Somes I add a little something extra little extra, garlic, onions, chives, something along those lines. Gives it some Polish flair.
Totally not Italian, but that is how I fix pasta for our son. He really does not like red sauce. I have heard it referred to as 'Baby Pasta' because that's how pasta is prepared for young children. My son eats his that way and loves egg noodles, too.
@@sharonkatope9885the egg noodles are great in chicken soup too
For folks who don't have a pasta roller, I started out making pasta with a rolling pin. A bit more muscle effort, but definitely works! Thankfully fettuccine is a thicker pasta than others. Also, I always cut my pasta with a knife or pastry cutter wheel, so no need for a machine for that either! Don't want anyone intimidated by the gadgets. Pasta can be done at home with a few tools. ❤ Yum!!! Can't wait to try this recipe.
I'm in love with you
Keep that to yourself, young man.
You gotta respect a guy who makes a career out of being a pasta showman. I like how simple the recipe is, too, so it really is all about the craft and presentation.
Celebrity endorsement in a time before TV adverts was also important. Fontana di Trevi would not have the same status if not for Anita Ekberg and Dolce Vita. It would be just another one of Rome's many many interesting landmarks.
Which means it taste disgusting.
Nothing stands in the way of a man who's found his vocation. 😃
Truth!
@timesthree5757 Actually, if the base was high quality ingredients and the "mantecatura" was done correctly, it's absolutely delicious.
Tourists come to Italy and fall in love with the food, they then often try to recreate them once back at home. But they can't seem to believe how simple the original was, they try to add a bunch of stuff which isn't needed
Max Miller's "Origianl Fettuccine Alfredo"= A masterclass on the *true* meaning of the very idea that the simplest dishes are often the highest/best quality
That's the essence of Italian food. Once saw an episode on Food Network's YT where Giada and Bobby were touring Italy, and they come across a similarly simple dish where the pasta is sauced with a mix of pasta water, anchovy, and barely-melted butter.
You heat the frying pan with the butter in it from the steam of the pasta pot. Once that's melted, you put in a high-quality anchovy fillet(I use anchovy paste), and swirl it in the butter until it dissolves. Add in your cooked noodles with a little pasta water, and toss. And if there's someone you want to show off for, practice that chef-y flip of the noodles using just the pan itself.
@@CarlGorn This is why italians get mad when they see americans make pizza and pasta with 100 ingredients that mostly don't even go together. Italian cuisine isn't hard to make, it's simple and delicious, why would you go out of your way to ruin that?
All great food traditions are often very simple. Granted some complicated dishes are very good but nothing really beats simple.
There's something to be said for a cook that can take a handful of ingredients and produce a miraculously delicious result.
Well, it demands high quality ingredients. If you have noodles, butter, and cheese. Or, a bun(buttered for a lil' "toastio" ya know?), beef, and cheese... And, in the pasta dish the noodles, butter, or cheese aren't of utmost quality... you are going to notice; you are going to hate the dish... If the beef, the bun, or the cheese on the burger is not of utmost quality... see what I mean?
People always thought I was weird, but I have a EXTREMELY sensitive taste. So, I won't eat sauce for the most part, and especially no condiments... it's all I can taste. For instance, I like a good hotdog... just bun and dog lol. So, you gotta have a very good bun, and a very good dog. Pizza, no sauce, so you better not fuck up the dough, you better not over cook it, and you sure as hell must have enough cheese lol. This one's contentious I know... until you try it... At a party, a non-drinking party(b-day etc. drunks will eat anything XD), have a pizza with no sauce, and one with sauce side by side. The no sauce pizza will be gone first, and no one eating it will realize it lol... until the pizza gets cold that is, then it's a different story. I know this cause everyone would eat my no sauce pizza unwittingly. So, i started testing it everywhere i went haha. Sauce doesn't belong on pizza, FIGHT ME lol. Im sure a light butter-garlic sauce applied LIGHTLY could be nice. But, fuck... just order the sauce at this point you junkies! Same with steak sauce like Heins and A1... who the fuck decided a steak should be desecrated like that man, i swear people order steak just as an excuse to have that fucking sauce lol.
If you got more than 5 ingredients (with one or two accented, like a bun being buttered for say. An ingredient that isn't meant to be tasted, but to enhance another) you are compensating. Unless you REALLY know what the fuck you're doing, and you better have labbed that dish for some time lol. Get the foundation right, then add a single ingredient until that one is perfected in the dish. And, repeat this process as needed until that next ingredient doesn't add, or takes away from the whole. And, if you're thinking "this dish is missing something, or it's just not dnough/complete" odds are... that factor will be alleviated with a soup or other pairing. Or, a drink of some sort. It doesn't have to have everything IN THE DISH.
Yall seen the burgers these days? 2 different buns(maybe a third in there), 3 sauces, pickles, onion, lettuce, tomato, jalapeños, 4 cheeses, bacon bits, applewood smoked~maple syrup encrusted~ thick-cut bacon, onion rings, maybe a patty in there somewhere, avocado, lemon-cilantro guacamole paste, potato skins, an egg yolk, caramelized calf teets, and cherry pits XD (not really a joke til the last 3 haha) shit's gotten out of hand. Much love, and if there is a psycho who read all of this... have a good one ;)
@@ItsOnlyGenjutsu I'm with you on the hot dog. Excellent bread, excellent sausage, and some fried red onions, perfect. A good sausage is fairly moist if cooked properly.
This is exactly how we make our regular pasta for a quick dinner. I had no idea it was the famous dish! To make a really tasty addition during the summer, try adding halved cherry sized tomatoes when tossing the hot noodles, too. The heat releases just enough of the tomato juices, and the sweetness of the tomatoes adds to the dish.
That’s a lovely idea!
Max.. you did Sophia (The Golden Girls) proud with the line "Picture it.. Italy 1908.."
"If you don't like cheese, then make something else." Max, you never fail to crack me up in some way.
Who doesn’t love cheese?
@@JustanotherLiz seriously, thats like saying your don't like breathing air.
😢 I love cheese but am allergic to dairy (and lactose intolerant on top of that). So I would have to eat something else anyway, and this makes me sad.
@@JustanotherLiz A lot of peple actually ... as it turns out, it's an aquired taste. It's more of a cultural thing really. Then there's even people in the states that just don't dig that funky taste that most cheese has.
@@JustanotherLiz
Tastes like I'm swallowing sweaty socks. Not a fan, can't help it; triggers my gag reflex.
Oh my gracious, the history! I remember being a young wife with morning sickness. My mother in law (a pro at having kids, and cooking) saw that I wasn’t eating meat or anything solid, because I couldn’t hold it down.
She whipped up a plate of whole-wheat spaghetti topped with sautéed onions and tomatoes, and maybe just a little salt. No spices and hardly any oil. Comfort food indeed. It was the only thing I ate on that trip besides watermelon. Bless her. ❤
I'm so glad you had a kind mother in law.
Keeping this in mind for if I have another baby 😂❤
Me too, when I was pregnant I could only keep spaghetti down.
This is what I was thinking-it was food she could eat with nausea!
It's so funny he said "I guess she got better, because he was born a few months later" and I'm like no, she got better BECAUSE he was born 😂
"fettuccine al burro" is basically the only kind of pasta I would eat as a kid. I was too picky for anything else. It's nice to know that it's actually an ancient traditional recipe going back to the middle ages!
You weren’t picky just old fashioned 😂
My grandmother would make fettuccine when I was young, and she called it 'pasta dei cornuti" and I had no idea that what "cornuti" meant being just a kid, and now you hit me with this revelation lol. Her and my grandfather were the only ones I ever heard calling it that.
It's used especially in South Italy
Her sounds like a good cook.
There’s also Spaghetti Alla Puttanesca, which has a similar origin.
Doubling the butter and cheese is a known secret to most foods. It's basically impossible to mess up too much of either of those.
This.
I’ll do that !
That explains why a lot of my mom’s cooking wasn’t that good because she would cut certain ingredients in half because she read somewhere like Readers Digest or Ladies Home Journal those ingredients were bad for you and she never used butter, only margarine. Her sisters on the other hand didn’t cut or substitute ingredients and would double-up on the tasty ingredients instead and their cooking was phenomenal.😋
The three secrets of French cuisine: butter, butter and butter.
Yep in fact if a French recipe says 1 tbsp of butter they mean like 5 lol. I regularly burnt or ruined recipes or they just never came out right until I learned the secret.
My Italian mother in law made this the other night. After she made the big dough ball by hand, she would hand crank the dough thru her small device and then place the strips of pasta on a large cookie sheet so she could cook the pasta all at once. No cream, just butter and fresh Parmesan. She added some shrimp to it as well
It was DELICIOUS! Even took a picture of it which I almost never do.
Butter stick hack - heat water to boil in mason jar or large enough glass. Pour out water, place upside down over a butter stick standing on end. When jar cools, your butter will be soft
@@jodycarter7308 Interesting technique. I prefer to use the Soften Butter function on our microwave though.
@@VidGamer123 found this more consistent throughout
How different does it taste? I don't like fettuccine alfredo, and though I don't like cheese, I think it's the cream that makes me not like it, because usually I'm okay with some melted cheese, though it's usually the less pungent ones like mozzarella or provolone. I do add grated parmesan on my spaghetti, though it's usually the canned kind, so not really a good comparison. Given all this, would it seem likely I would dislike this dish? I heard real parmesan cheese is expensive, so I don't want to make it if I'm just going to end up not liking it.
@@aewtx: Just try it with the caned Parmesan first, no need to worry about it.
I don't think there's a YT creator out there who weaves sponsor copy as seamlessly into their videos as Max. It's adorable and consistently makes me at least check out the sponsor, if not order something.
I know what you mean, most CZcamsrs do lengthy shameless plugs for their channel and way too long endorsements for sponsors but I simply double-click the right side of the screen and it jumps 60 seconds and bypasses that nonsense.😉
Pint (a CZcamsr, formerly of WoW fame, who now makes FFXIV videos) is the only one I can think of who matches it, if not surpasses.
Came here to say something like this. It really is a gift
Micareh Tewers
You think that clunky effort is smooth LOL
I remember being stuck in a remote location in Alaska, at a company bunkhouse with a friend of mine years ago who grew up on this recipe. After getting back from the boats and the bars, not having made time to go to the store to get provisions, we discovered very luckily that the previous folks of our profession left behind these simple ingredients. I remember her fixing this that night for us and then I made it for myself many times thereafter. It's so simple but it does bring back memories easily.
Something important about the pasta water is that the original restaurants re-use the water repeatedly, so its much starchier than it gets from just boiling one serve. You can re-create this at home by just adding some starch slurry to the water to make it starchier.
Great idea!
Why add something you don't need? Just cook the pasta in much less water than you usually do and you have starchy water galore.
The importance of a good starchy pasta water cannot be over stated, it's basically magic!
@@CologneCarter Depending on what you're doing, you can also use a lot of pasta water and reduce it down for some concentrated starchy goodness.
Just cook it with just barely enough water to cover the pasta and add a little more as needed during boiling. That way the starch is a lot more concentrated
Max confirming that *the middle ages were magic* with their fettuccine alfredo. An awesome episode as always.
Is that an “ask a mortician”reference?
“I understood that reference!”
🎼🎵"The Middle Ages were magic!"🎵🎵
Bentham's head! 💀
@@danielmagyar2028 Haydn´s Head!
Cacio e pepe with fettuccine pasta!
I've successfully used pregrated cheese.
Alex from France makes good observations about the water starch concentration.
And from my own testing I've found that too much water dilutes the starch and too little allows the water to be super saturated before the pasta is ready. Playing with this balance was likely Alfredo's secret. I like using as little water as possible to cook the noodle.
Great video explaining the history , i have been making this for yrs , 1/2 cup any flour per egg bit of olive oil , put water on to boil , salt it , roll the dough an cut it with a knife , don't have to rest it , grate the cheese while the pasta is cooking , salted butter is fine , pasta on a plate add butter an cheese , it's done , takes about as long as making kraft dinner except it's fresh .
My half Italian mother used to make me this recipe a lot when I was a child. She added touch of dried parsley and it definitely improves the taste. I had no idea it was so close to the real thing. Miss you mom!
I really appreciate the time that Max takes to actually taste and honestly describe the food. There are so many food edu/personalities that gloss over the experience of actually eating the food. That's a bonus on top of his being such a warm, honest, researched presenter.
I never had store bought pasta till I moved away from home to go to college. My mother ( who was not Italian) made her own pasta. Her noodles were thick and hand rolled. They=re is a type of Japanese noodle that is made like that. When I eat it, I am reminded of my mom's noodles and how she had them draped all over the kitchen to dry.
As an Italian, I’m so appreciative of you getting this important message out there.
Watching Alex French Guy Cooking do a homemade version of the fettucine alfredo he ate at the restaurant and you also doing a fettucine alfredo video feels like watching a history teacher explain something and then a mad scientist actually doing the practice. Really love this one.
Yeah, saw it too he found he had to add additional flour to the boiling water to up the starchiness of it for a more creamy sauce. He noted that the restaurant pasta water was very starchy since they cooked all pasta orders in the same water.
Ah! I found my people!
Yeah I watch Alex too that was a really good one.
Watched that one yesterday. 😂
And they had the fork and the spoon! After all this time!
The restaurant's secret is that the pasta water is used over and over, creating a super-high starch content. It's almost milky. At home, you can match the needed starch amount by adding a little four/water slurry to your pasta water before you add it to the dish. The restaurant uses A LOT of pasta water when making the dish, more than you would think, and It makes a BIG difference in getting the creaminess you want in the sauce. Also, don't skimp on the cheese. Additionally, the 50/50 mix of semolina and 00 four is essential to getting the right taste and texture.
You could at least give credit to Alex, if you already steal all of what he said in his last video and act as if those were your ideas.
Thats crazy talk. Im Italian American and we dont add flour to pasta water it has enough starch on its own.
Love the channel, thanks Max. First time I write, just a few words, as an Italian. Yes, Fettuccine all'Alfredo are really one of the best examples of Italian food, not really because they are so famous/infamous but exactly because they are so simple. Some of the most iconic Italian recipes (especially pastas) have really short ingredient lists ("cacio e pepe", "aglio olio e peperoncino", even "carbonara"). This is also the answer to people who are surprised that Italians are relatively thin even by eating a lot of pasta. It is all about the simple sauces, not the amount of carbohydrates.
Vero!
That n starving peasants, as in every country
This is absolutely comfort food. I just made this with dried gluten-free tagliatele and provolone since I ran out of parmesan. It came out a lot like my mom's homemade mac n cheese using a bechamel and cheddar, but way quicker... I definitely recommend a dash of nutmeg in this.
I think Alex (the French guy) went to the restaurant where it was made recently, and did a video on it! Nice to see you do a video too
they let him use THE golden fork and spoon as well
I forgot about that guy! He disappeared from my algorithm!
I was thinking the same, for those missed The French Guy --> czcams.com/video/bOQurydi0xs/video.html
Yes, and Alex-like, he tries to re-create the experience on his own, and we all learn a lot together.
I was like , Alex (the French guy) did it too XD ...
I didn’t realize it but apparently we have been making authentic fettuccine Alfredo for many many years. It’s the only way my daughter would eat pasta when she was little.😊
Not at all . Max goi it wrong this time i guess . The difference stands on a preocess called "Mantecatura", which is rolling you noodles in butter in a hot pan and then adding freshly gound Parmesan in order to combine the fat with the gluten of the carbs to abatain a soft cream that will stick to your pasta and make roll your eyes . Is what every italian does before serving risotto directly in the pot . A non mantecated risotto isn` in fact t a real risotto : What the original Alfredo restaurant does still today is bring a cart to every table equipped whit a hot pan and do the mantecatin before costumers ates and serve freshly made creamy fettuccine to each one . What Max just did is just some pasta al burro as one does on an average tuesday evening for dinner in Italy.
@@marinogrivonlaverde6963 That's not what my Italian grandmother said.
@@ktiemz: The purist types have no use for real practices, just idealized ones.
Is there anything better than simplicity? Pasta, cheese, butter ! Voila! I appreciate your dedication to understanding recipes and letting your viewers follow along! After watching a few episodes I knew it was time to subscribe!! Keep 'em coming!!
Nope, there's nothing better than simplicity! That's what I hate about almost all modern cooking, everyone skips mastering the technique and goes straight to overly complex dishes they can't even do right. A simple dish done with perfect technique can be so much better than a complex dish, especially one done improperly.
Nope! I bet this is the best thing ever!
Remember, perfection isn't adding things until you can't add anymore, it's taking away until you can't take away anymore.
I always made fresh pasta with semolina, 00 and eggs using an Atlas roller and because I didn't know how to make a proper Alfredo Sauce I simply used lots of good butter and cheese almost exactly as you describe with a little pasta water and lots of cracked black pepper. It was perfect for me just like that but I always felt a little guilty like I must be lazy for not taking the time to make a sauce with cream and egg yolk -- haha -- now after all these years I find out I was doing it right in the first place just keeping it simple, easy and delicious!
Max, you said Alfredo never released the recipe, but I may have it. I inherited a 1974 cookbook from my grandmother: "365 Ways to Cook Pasta" by Jacques Harvey "With the collaboration of Alfredo of the world-famous restaurant Alfredo l'Originale of Rome". The inside back cover notes that "The superb recipes have been selected and tested by Alfredo, whose restaurant in Rome has been famous for decades as the home of the best pasta dishes and whose Fettuccine Alfredo - the recipe for which is included here - is known throughout the world." If you like I can type up the recipe in a response, but as you said, the ingredients are fresh fettuccine, unsalted butter, and freshly grated Parmesan.
This is one of the things I really love about Tasting Histiry vids - not just the wonderful Max, but also the amazing bonuses in the comments section! 🥰 Tips & tricks, personal & family anecdotes, jokes & kind words. Adds a lot to an already great channel!!
This is great! Looking for a copy to add to my collection. 😊
We need to track him down and make him see this comment 😂
Hi, I just recently got into cooking and would love to be the lucky recipient of the recpie
@@Saurischian sure! From the date of the book, it looks like the source is the original Alfredo's son who was mentioned in the video, who also went by Alfredo. I would think he would know his father's recipe pretty well, so as close as we will hear from the man himself. "This is the recipe that Alfredo has made famous all over the world. Alfredo, when he gave me this recipe, told me that it is very important that the fettuccine be homemade, that the butter be absolutely fresh and of the best quality possible, and that the Parmesan cheese be true Parmesan, freshly grated."
"Cooking time: 6 or 7 minutes
1 pound fettuccine
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Start cooking the fettuccine in abundant boiling salted water for 4 to 5 minutes. Put an oval serving dish in a hot oven to heat (it must be very hot when the fettuccine are put into it). Drain the cooked fettuccine, but not too much. The pasta should be slightly foamy. Turn onto the hot serving dish on which you have already put dabs of butter. Add the freshly grated cheese. Mix with a fork and spoon until all the ingredients are well blended. The result should be a rather Creamy sauce. Serve immediately. Serves 4."
A few things I wanted to mention since you said you were a newbie (though I'm certainly no professional chef myself). Since the recipe says homemade pasta, the closest you would find would probably be the fresh pasta at the store (might be in a more refrigerated section like near the cheese, but you can always ask), not the dried pasta. If I recall, dried fettuccine takes a few more minutes than that to cook, if that's all you can find. I'm also wary of serving amounts. It probably could serve 4, but depends how hungry the people are. Might want to serve with a salad or something just in case. Also, I'm sure if you don't have an oval shaped oven safe dish, circular or rectangular will suffice. Lastly, the reason they recommend freshly grated cheese is likely because most prepackaged grated cheese has substances like cellulose to prevent it caking together in the package, which could also make the final product slightly less creamy. But I don't think it will taste BAD with a decent quality pregrated Parmesan. Depends how much time you want to put into it.
If you are interested in the homemade fettuccine recipe in the book, I can type that up too, but no shame if you decide to go with store bought lol. I know I rarely have time to cook from scratch like that.
Another great episode!
Thank you!
👍
wow
Thank you!
Good
I made this tonight, and it turned out so good! I know it's not exactly a difficult recipe, but it certainly turned into an immediate house staple. 10/10 will make again.
I love a three ingredient recipe. I made this tonight and my Sicilian M-I-L and wife loved it. I cheated added grilled chicken and it was still great! Thanks Max.
I think I know what I'm making tonight!
Fresh vs dry pasta is one of those weird things that people often seem to think is a quality issue but is absolutely not. Dry and fresh pasta are just two totally different things, as they have totally different textures and cook very differently. Rather than one being better than the other they might as well be different ingredients entirely.
Really? I’m a pasta noob.
@@Wolvenworks Yup. They might as well be two largely unrelated ingredients. Dry pasta is typically cooked "al dente," so with a bit of bite to it still, but fresh pasta is pretty universally soft and is cooked only very briefly.
I prefer dry. I've had good fresh pasta maybe once.
I mean though, when would you pick dry pasta over fresh? That’s just silly
All'Assassina must be made with dry pasta or it won't work. If you want a true al dente texture, dried pasta is the only option.
Having said that, I've made fresh pasta and love it for certain things, especially ravioli. I've always hand rolled mine, never a machine.
A good tip: in restaurants, they usually cook the pasta in the same pot for all the service so the water is extra starchy. At home, add some flour to your water before cooking the pasta to add starch and help with the emultion.
Or use much less water
@KubrickFR - Great suggestion.
Their water looks more like milk!
@@adde9506yes, this is what I do too, when I want to use the pasta cooking water for thickening up some veggie-based sauce.
Someone saw Alex's latest video?
My mom and I made fettuccine Alfredo from scratch using inspiration from the Roman original. It was absolutely divine. Looking at it, you would think it was the plainest dish of all time… but it was actually insane. It took us 3hrs to make the pasta because our old school “attach to the table” pasta stretcher was malfunctioning, lol. Also, my mom lives in the middle of nowhere, so we didn’t have access to the exact ingredients we wants for the flour. We had to improvise… even still, it was ridiculously amazing.
I'm in love with you
I admire your dedication! You have a great memory with your Mom as well as a delicious meal together. 😊
My aunt made this for us some time in the 70’s, it’s amazing. The same aunt also introduced us to adding blueberries to peach cobbler, and taco salad.
(I dropped my 1995 kitchen aid once - it didn’t break, dented the vinyl and a bit of the concrete underneath, though!)
I’d love to see an episode on the history of Moroccan Mint Tea! There has to be a good history there, and there’s plenty of pizzazz in serving (huge helpings of mint, special tea pots, keeping the soul of the tea, etc).
I second this notion 🌿🍵♨ Also maybe some Maghrebi cuisine?
Make sure to drink in from crystal -The Alchemist
The minute you said, "Picture it: Italy 1908" my brain went straight to the Golden Girls and Sofia's stories from Sicily. Love this recipe and the simplicity of it. I've been frustrated with alfredo sauce lately as all but one brand I've found has garlic and my husband can no longer eat much garlic due to heartburn. This recipe looks and sounds so good that I may have to try making it myself! Thanks for another great vid!
I knew I couldn't be the only one who caught that... 😂👍❤
Really? My mind went straight to Luigi on The Simpsons.
Im allergic to garlic. I have that same problem.
Picture it; Sicily, 1997; a beautiful young intelligent Italian girl meets a hunky handsome Scottish man named Max... She falls in love with him, of course, but then she learns that he's already met a Spaniard named José, and she'll never be his... The moral of the story is; "don't iron your pasta too flat, because you never know which side your bread is buttered".... What?
@@kellysouter4381You are lucky to be an "Amerikanka"... in Yugoslavia, garlic is allergic to YOU!
Inspired by this video, I made this! And it was really good! My second meal I added fried onions and mushrooms (as I had a bunch left over), and it was even better. I think the base recipe is a GREAT place to start. Very glad I did it - it was fun. I'll be doing this again, with other variations. Thanks Max!
Something about Alfredo’s smile was truly infectious. You can tell he’s having so much fun and it’s honestly pretty wholesome.
I can't believe all those times I've made myself plain pasta with butter and parmesan I was actually making Italian renaissance cuck pasta.
it was tasty though wasn't it
@@whatno5090 It sure fucking was. Made it again last night using the added technique of tossing the pasta to mix it straight from the pot, it was excellent. Love the simplicity of this recipie!
@@SwitchFeathers your passionate enjoyment is contagious
No egg yolk?
If you're an experienced cook/baker but new to making fresh pasta, my top tip is that pasta dough should be much stiffer than bread dough. It should be just soft enough that you can knead it, not sticky at all. This will let you easily roll it out without tearing or sticking, and it's especially important if you're making a filled pasta like ravioli so it's tough enough to contain the dough.
It is so tough at first that it seemed crazy ...my first time I added extra moisture and it didnt fall apart but it was craxy stretching and bad. When I did it with the recipe i was like this cannot be correct ..it was hell to knead but when it went shiney and smooth it was so satisfying. I think it helps to half kneead it then let it. REst and the moisture seems to absorb in to make it easier.
The only thing that makes me happier than fettcine Alfredo is a max miller explaining tha history of it
My grandmother, born and raised in Toledo Ohio, married my New England born and bred grandfather at 30. They moved to Scotland for work, then Italy, then eventually back to New England.
As a little girl, I was *massively confused* why fettuccine Alfredo was terrible made by anyone other than my grandmother. I had *no way* of knowing until I was much older it was because she lived in Italy when this version of the dish was at peak popularity, and she never stopped making it the correct way.
If you do go with dried pasta, go for bronze die (bronze cut) pasta. It has a rougher texture which will both release more starch into the water as well as give more surface area for the sauce to stick to.
You can also add extra starch to the cooked pasta water to get the right thickening. In restaurants, the pasta cooker uses the same water for all dishes served and the water gets thicker over time. Don't order pasta dishes when the restaurant just opened if they didn't preserve some of the thick pasta water from the evening before.
If you can find It.
@@ebbeollman1198 Or you have someone who knows how to cook prepare the dish. For those dishes relying on the starchy pasta water, you just cook the pasta in way less water than you usually do - e presto, starchy pasta water. It is pasta water that is used not a starchy sauce.
This is one of those simple home cooked meals in many Italian homes. A dish that doesn't reqiure a diploma and fine quisine techniques. They don't keep pasta water on standby for dishes like cacio e pepe or pasta al burro (Alfredo) in Italian home kitchens.
@@elizabethjansen2684Kroger sells bronze cut under the private selection in store premium brand it's a bit more than the regular but so worth it. The extra starchiness makes it so tasty and filling.
The exemplification of italian cuisine philosophy, few ingredients, but super high quality, and treated with respect 🇮🇹🇮🇹🇮🇹
I just found your channel randonly and are enchanted on the clear and sympatical way to present the facts and stories back. Thanks!!
Just tried this as fresh as I could (i.e. freshly packaged fettuccine and a container of freshly shredded parmesan). And while I did have a couple cheese clumps, this was fantastic! Thanks for showing me this recipe. This is definitely going on my meal rotation. I'm gonna need to buy a cheese grater so I can try it with truly fresh cheese.
The clumps are probably from the cheese you bought that was already shredded. It has anti-caking agents added into it. GRATED (looks like powder) Parmesan works A LOT better for sauces than shredded. Try to get a block/wedge of Parmesan and you can grate it with the smallest holes on the grater you have or if you have a food processor, cut into 1 1/2 - 2 inch squares and throw them in with the regular S blade and it will grate it all perfectly in no time flat! You won't have any clumps or trouble melting. I grate a bunch all at once and then put into labeled freezer bags in 4 oz servings, flatten them and then put them in the freezer.😊 Grated hard cheeses can be used directly out of the freezer so it's really convenient to as an ingredient OR a topping!
Funny thing is that now in Italy we eat pasta with butter and parmigiano when we feel a bit under the weather lol! Basically fettuccine Alfredo are served only in tourist restaurants, we don't really eat like this!
Exactly! He was a great marketer of fettuccine al burro.
@@TastingHistory😊😊😊😊
Literally every person whose grandparents were Italian ate this when they were sick six-year-olds. 😂
@@WinstonSmithGPTor pastina in brodo 😅
Didn't know this was a thing. I sometimes eat pasta with butter and parmesan because I'm to lazy to make a proper meal.
"So simple yet so delicious" 18:17
I'm an Italian who's been living abroad for a while now, and this hit me like a train. For as many problems as Italy has (and there are MANY) it's still home, and I miss it terribly.
One of the things I miss most is precisely what you described in that simple line: the ability to take a few poor yet precious ingredients and mixing them into some of the best dishes in the world... It's a truly Italian staple, and one of the things that makes that stupid, ridiculous, wonderful nation so special.
Thanks as always for being so respectful of your source material Max, love ya!
I watch a lot of Italia Squisita and truly the secret of Italian cooking is all in the technique, you can have the best ingredients in the world but it means nothing unless you understand the nuances of how to prepare and assemble them.
In southern France they also like to put this dish in the oven for a while: the parmigiano on top gets golden and crusty and inside the bowl it will stick well to the noodles - what it otherwise won't.
Eating Alfredo, while watching the History of Alfredo is just 👌
I was in Rome in May and two of my favourite pasta dishes were traditional Roman dishes, Cacio e Pepe, just pecorino cheese and pepper, and Pasta Carbonara, just guanciale, cheese and eggs! It’s truly amazing how delicious and creamy these simple pasta dishes are with so few ingredients and the addition of some pasta water! Thanks for another interesting video Max! I always look forward to your weekly posting!
The King of the Noodles is a fabulous title. I’m glad Alfredo got his (gold plated) utensils back.
I'm not at all sure about that story, I'm italian (not italian-american) and my grandmother, who lived in northern Italy at the time, remembers the regime asking for gold, but you were forced to give only your wedding rings (and they gave you a tin one in substitution) you could give more if you wanted but it was obtional, and in fact my relatives had also some gold necklace but they weren't asked to give those or anything else.
This was fabulous! My husband actually prefers his Fettuccini prepared this way now instead of with regular cream sauce.
Using the best ingredients is really what makes Italian food so good. And the ingredients get to really shine ✨️ since the recipes are quite simple
But while anyone can make them, sometimes they are more difficult to truly master since they ARE so simple (perhaps like baking).
Max, you are an Alfredo. The information you present could be done by anyone else, but it is you who everyone keeps coming back for. Alfredo truly exemplified how successful artisanship and the arts actually work. It's not just about the specific product, but about the whole experience.
I would definitely say Max's personality plays into things a great deal. 😊 My 7th grade world history teacher couldn't teach his way out of a paper bag. He'd talk with a monotone voice and use the infamous overhead projector for showing notes. It didn't help it was our last class of the day, an hour and a half after eating a fairly heavy lunch. 😅 (Potato bar, anyone?)
Fast forward 2 and a half decades (give or take), and I'm glued to Max Miller's highly engaging and entertaining videos. Shall we call these video collections "Videos di Maximiliano?" (Apologies for any improper Italian grammar.) 😅😁
The original recipe was one of my daughter's first finger foods, including the freshly grated parmigiano reggiano. We'd cut the pasta into shorter lengths for safety and to make it easier for her to pick up, and we would cook it to slightly mushy instead of al dente. To this day, 25 years later, it's one of her favorite comfort foods.
Love your show man. History and food! Keep it coming. I plan to buy your cook book!
I've been making this exactly this way for ages. I had no idea of the history behind it. I just never understood why the need to add cream and liked it this way. Great to learn that I've been inadvertently doing it 'authentic' all along.
My mother's side of the family is Sicilian, and this has often been a goto dish for us. Our variation is after boiling up the pasta, we toss butter, parmesan/romano, and garlic powder into it. We then top the finished product with black pepper and oregano for color. Usually served as a side to chicken broiled in olive oil and herbs, topped with more grated cheese and another side of salad.
Absolute comfort food, cheap and quick.
Out of curiosity, has your family been in the US for long? Asking because that's a very Italian-American style of cuisine.
A real Italian would never use garlic powder.
@@daisy9910 Here we go again with Italiano-gatekeeping.
@emperorfaiz You can call it as you pleased, but @daisy9910 is still right. you've never been to Italy, right?
that sounds great!
I love that a rivalry between two restaurants named Alfredo is something that actually happened in real life.
Yes, me too! I mentioned in a comment earlier that I could even see it as a film.
Always love your episodes Max! The history is always amazing and I always enjoy how you go about each procedure. I also give you mad props for making the sponsor bit just as interesting. I hope your channel is around for many more years to come.
Thank you!
My Grandmother, Matilde, was from Rome and she always made spaghetti with butter, garlic and a little Parmesan. It was SO delicious and we still make it to this day. I will have to give this a try since it is so similar!! I can’t handle the heavy cream sauces, so this is perfect. 👍🏼 Such a great video!
Nothing scares me quite as much as hearing the words “Let’s go to the Olive Garden!” 😅
Same. I'm Mexican. Here people see it as a fancy place which has fair prices. I know better. I'm not interested.
I'm old enough to remember when the Olive Garden actually made fresh pasta in their restaurants. I think it must of been in the late 80's that they stopped doing that.
I'd go to Olive Garden just for their endless salad and inferior breadsticks. Best thing on their menu.
@@michaelnash2138 That's how they get you. That's the object of the curse.
@@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721 You're absolutely right!
Max, your tip about using pasta water in this dish was perfect - thanks for that. Used it in a dish prepared with just pesto, olive oil and cheese today. Perfect! Love your channel and congrats on your recent wedding.
extraordinaily done Max, that was a lot of fun and your history piece made it a delictable story.
The Golden Girls reference at 6:58 made my day. 😂 Fettuccine Alfredo is a standard at our house, thanks for the history and the original recipe!
Golden girls?
@@kathleennorton7913 Golden Girls... The TV show from the 80s. It's a running gag that Sophia, the oldest, often tells stories from her childhood in Italy and they always start with "picture it, Italy, 1908..." or something similar.
@MsFitz134 Yes, but more specifically, it was Sicily name-dropped 😁
(always love to see more Golden Girls references/fans)
I'm glad I'm not the only one reminded of Sophia when he said that.
@@MsFitz134 I think her catch phrase was "Picture it, Sicily, 19 - -" There were a few times that she changed it up if it was in a different location..
The history of this is amazing. The fact that alfredo is "cuck pasta" is absolutely amazing.
I don't know if I should tell my mom about this or not. 😅 She loooves fettuccine Alfredo, but she would definitely not care for the folkloric tale of a cheating spouse. 😅 Though it kind of makes me wonder why that one woman was a cheater anyway. 🤔 Was her husband having difficulty getting it up, or was it solely a political marriage and she had no actual desire for him at all?
Divorce was illegal in Italy until the 1970s.
ok
Pasta Puttanesca is “whore’s pasta”
I love itwhen max smilea really happy smile at the end when the dish really pleases him and surprise him
MAX! There’s an ancient Indian cookbook called “Paka Darpanam” where you will find a lot of recipes that that we even still use to this day. There is even probably the oldest recipe for biryani in there
Really? How is it?
The theater of eating is everything, from Pressed Duck to Caesar Salad to the OG Nachos. People love a story.
It's always fun to look into food that's named after a person because that means that person made an impact.
The Garum video was the first video I watched of yours as well. 😄 Love your videos and learning the history of these dishes! 🥰
This dish is amazing using the spinach fettucine - it was served at the Italian restaurant I worked at in a previous life. It was a huge seller and when I wasn't feeling super great the chef would make it for me.
You have me ready to buy a kitchen aid mixer (my original one suffered the same fate as yours RIP) and whip up a batch of fettuccine ❤
I have loved your channel since November of 2020. You and Townsend helped me make it through the winter. Much love 💕
The celebrate my birth in 1957 my father gifted my mother with a Kitchen Aid mixer. It still works today. Unfortunately I don’t have it. Because after my mother passed my father gave it my sister instead. She wouldn’t give it back to me😢 That mixer was so much a part of my past and used Every day and also I have several photos of me as a very young girl using it alongside my mother.
You can roll it out yourself with a rolling pin if you want to! Just work in SMALL batches and roll it thinner than you think you need it. It comes out feeling like a dumpling noodle if it's too thick.
I absolutely adored it! I had the opportunity to chat with Max on Instagram, and we had a conversation about this dish. The narrative surrounding the actors and everything else was simply captivating. It was truly amazing. Although I am Neapolitan and not Roman, we still enjoy Pasta Burro e Parmiggiano because it's incredibly easy to prepare. Living in the UK, I decided to make it for a friend of mine, who couldn't believe it was literally just butter and cheese. Pasta al Pesto is another dish that requires only a handful of ingredients. Overall, I am genuinely delighted that this episode was created. Thank you, Max.
I bought the kitchenaid stand mixer in the description for $170 through a mix of discounts, sales, and credit coupons. Best purchase of my life.
love your show. I tried the fettuccine Alfredo without cream and it turned out great and will do it that way from now on. Thanks for all the history.
I've always made my alfredo this way. Kerrigold butter helps as it is has more fat content. Also, use the pasta water to thicken the sauce.
All butters have the same fat content.
@@CordeliaWagner no, they don't. it's a small percentile difference ranging from 80% to 86% but they're not all the same
Kerrigold < plugra
@@josephallen1085 Exactly. It's already thick with the butter and cheese; you add the hot pasta water to thin it just a bit so it is more like cream.
@@josephallen1085I'm pretty sure it's the water that was used to boil the pasta as it has starches that help thicken it.
This explains why, when I went into the North End of Boston (a notoriously good Italian sector), the fettuccine alfredo I ordered was so good. It was exactly as Max suggests - very cheese forward but still creamy. Extremely flavorful while being smooth and simple. It must have been prepared in this traditional way. It makes so much sense now - 20 years later. I've been chasing that dragon ever since.
the answer to a creamy sauce is always mantecare instead of cream, its a most fundamental technique for pasta dishes. carbonara, al burro, cacio e pepe, aglio e olio, all unthinkable without it and at least immensely beneficial to almost every other sauce. it might sound like italian magic but its just simple emulsion with starchy pasta water and some kind of fat :P
My late grandmother was from the North End and made this dish for us pretty regularly. It was an easy easy dinner compared to most of the meals she prepared and boy, did we ever love it!
If you're not used to cooking with pasta water, it can be pretty surprising how creamy it can make a sauce with no cream. Just pasta water and butter and salt can make a silky smooth pasta sauce that you gotta taste to understand.
@@medikativ4900 It tastes like magic! Once you start making sauces that way there's no going back.
@@bobbygetsbanned6049 You know, I was thinking about it while reading this, and I'm not even sure why it's surprising. Like, the "creaminess" people like in cream, what is it? Nobody's going around wishing their pasta had more buttermilk in it, right? 😆 The butter was the good part all along.
We made this yesterday and it was fantastic! Thanks, Max, keep up the great work.
Dapper as ever. Thank you for sharing! Always a pleasure to learn of the history of my favorites
I'm Italian and you just made me crave my grandma's fettuccine al burro.
I haven't had them since I was a kid :')
I didn't know the full story, also the little folklore story about the woman cheating on her husband so much she didn't have time to make other kinds of pasta is so funny!! :'D
That echoes the legendary bases of so many beloved Italian sauces, though - marinara, quickly made by busy fishermen, or puttanesca, quickly made by busy _puttane..._ 😏
@@chezmoi42 Or my other favorite joke on how it was known as Nesca until your mom made it :)
Alfredo's dramatics reminds me of another famous Italian restauranteur called Federico Peliti who made British Calcutta his home in 1875. The crowds flocked to his doors because of his menu-bhekti norvegienne, steak and kidney pie, cold turkey and ham, pressed beef, pressed tongue, black currant pie and so on-and his personality. He was made Chevalier by the king too! His successor Angelo Firpo was another famous chef who kept his restaurant running until the Indian Independence. It's quite fascinating! While British Calcutta had been host to a lot of people, from Armenians to the Greek, it's the Italians who never left a prominent mark on the city despite having such thriving restaurant businesses. Idk if you will read this Max, but you should look into British Calcutta food history! It's so interesting!
I LOVE my KitchenAid stand mixer. It's the smaller version but it is still just as awesome as the full sized person. The smaller one fits on our counter. I use it with the bread hook to mix meatloaf which allows me to make meatloaf without getting my hands dirty.
I "discovered" this recipe back in 1993 in a book I got when I went away to college: "Where's Mom Now That I Need Her?" It was full of recipes, cleaning tips (both around the house and laundry), sewing techniques and the like. (The companion book "Where' Dad" had mechanical and DIY stuff. Equally good.) When I saw this recipe, I scoffed at it, but the first time I made it, just like the look on your face it was amazing. I've made it for others since and they're stunned just the same.
When I was a kid, there was a Mandarin Chinese restaurant in town that surprised patrons every so often with a "Noodle Show." When a server came around to say it was time, everyone would pull their chairs to a central area to watch. Then the owner-Chef would roll out a cart with a little blob of dough and a big tray. Without saying a word, he'd pick up the dough, then start stretching and folding, stretching and folding, then stretching and folding some more, until that little blob of dough became hundreds of very long, thin noodles. One loud whack of a cleaver doubled the number of noodles, then someone would carry the tray of noodles back to the kitchen to be cooked for the next round of ordered dishes. Your description of Alfredo's showmanship brought the noodle show to mind, and it's a very sweet memory from my childhood. So thanks for that, just as much as for the recipe :) You're the best, Max!
Another great episode!! My family is Sicilian and for generations they have enjoyed a bowl of pasta with butter and cheese as a comfort food. Just like you said in the video it's a comfort food. On days when I just don't feel like cooking I'll boil some pasta and throw in some butter and cheese and call it a day.
What an amazing story.. and the recipe so amazing.. I’ve got to try! Thanks for sharing!
I’m always so invested on the history part that whenever you cut back to the cooking I’m rather in dismay hahaha love the content 😻❤️
I LOVE true traditional pasta.
Max, your content has been a light for me in dark times. Thank you so much and love you.
Wish you and Jose a happy 4th of july❤️💙🤍
Thank you! Happy 4th!
@@TastingHistory Same max! 🤍💙❤️🥹🥹