Carrabba's Alfredo Sauce

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Alfredo has one failure mode and everybody has met it: the sauce goes stringy and grainy, with threads of cheese and a slick of oil on top.

It is a protein problem, and there are exactly two causes.

The cheese was too hot. Above about 80°C, parmesan's proteins contract and squeeze out the fat they were holding. What is left is rubbery strings in an oily liquid.

The cheese was grated too coarsely. Big shreds need longer in the pan to melt, which means more time above the temperature where they break.

The two rules

Grate it on the fine side of the grater, to a powder rather than shreds. It melts almost on contact.

Take the pan off the heat before any cheese goes in. Not low — off. A cream sauce holds plenty of heat.

Follow both and alfredo becomes reliable.

Real parmesan, not the bagged shreds

Pre-grated parmesan is coated with anti-caking starch, which is designed to stop it fusing. In a sauce, that means it never fully incorporates and you get a slightly gritty texture no matter how careful you are with heat.

Parmigiano Reggiano or a decent Grana Padano, grated from the block.

No flour

Restaurant alfredo is thickened by reduction and by the cheese, not by a roux. A flour-thickened version has a dulling, pasty quality and it coats your mouth in a way the real thing does not.

Reduce the cream by about a quarter and it will thicken on its own. It also thickens further off the heat and again when it meets the hot pasta.

What you need

• 300 ml double cream
• 115 g unsalted butter
• 150 g parmesan, finely grated from a block
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 tsp white pepper
• 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
• salt
• 450 g fettuccine
• a mug of the pasta water

Method

1. 1. Get the pasta on in well-salted water.
2. 2. Melt the butter over a medium-low heat. Garlic in for **1 minute — no colour.**
3. 3. Cream in. Bring to a bare simmer and let it reduce for 5–6 minutes, until it coats the back of a spoon.
4. 4. White pepper and nutmeg.
5. 5. Take the pan off the heat completely.
6. 6. Add the parmesan a handful at a time, whisking each lot in before the next.
7. 7. Drain the pasta a minute early, reserving a mugful of water, and toss it through the sauce.
8. 8. Loosen with pasta water until it flows.

The pasta water is the adjustment tool

Alfredo tightens fast. By the time it reaches the table it will be thicker than it was in the pan, and thicker again a minute later.

Starchy pasta water thins it without diluting the flavour, and the starch helps the sauce cling. Plain water just makes it watery.

Keep more than you think you need.

White pepper and nutmeg

White pepper because black flecks look wrong in a white sauce, and its flavour is slightly earthier, which suits this.

Nutmeg because it is the traditional partner to cream and cheese and it makes the sauce taste less flat without being identifiable. A quarter teaspoon; more and it tastes like a dessert.

Storing

Two days in the fridge, and it will be solid when cold. Reheat very gently with a splash of milk, stirring constantly, and never let it boil.

It does not freeze. The emulsion breaks and cannot be brought back.