Hi Blog,
I have finally made it to the stage of making my own sauce from scratch! For this week I chose a daunting task… making my own Fettuccine Alfredo! Remi from Ratatouille would be proud. Fettuccine Alfredo is my guilty pleasure and this week, I tried going one step further and cooking two other dishes simultaneously. Safe to say… it was organized chaos. But wait until you see the end review!
This week, I made homemade Fettuccine Alfredo and I made the sauce from scratch. Truthfully, I collected information from multiple sites, so there is not singular site that I used for the recipe, because the approach to fettuccine making fettuccine is more open-ended than you think. The flexibility comes with the spices and how you long you let the sauce simmer. The inspiration for trying this came from my trip to Walmart recently. I walked past the jarred sauces and saw Alfredo sauce sitting on the shelf. It was borderline disturbing because the main ingredients in a traditional Alfredo are dairy, and having that kind of sauce on the shelf and not in a fridge just doesn’t sit well with me. It’s similar to seeing chocolate milk in that bulk box at Costco, it’s like you know that should be in the fridge, but it isn’t. The Alfredo had a bunch of other ingredients in the sauce that I didn’t recognize, and then it dawned on me… I could try making the sauce myself, it really shouldn’t be too complicated.
This link goes to a recipe that has the closest resemblance to how my sauce turned out: https://thesaltymarshmallow.com/best-homemade-alfredo-sauce/
Carrots were boiled in water until fork tender. Strain the carrots and then add in a couple tablespoons of butter, salt, pepper, and garlic powder and mix until well combined. I’ve heard olive oil works just as well instead of butter, it’s just a vessel to coat the carrots.
Vegetables
- Zucchini
- Mushrooms
- Red bell peppers
- Onions
- Garlic
Sauté the onions and garlic first (in that order) until golden brown. I added mushrooms first, then bell peppers, and finally zucchini. I find zucchini cooks the fastest, hence why it was added last, and any water released by mushrooms will have evaporated by the end. Cook on medium until the bell peppers are slightly soft. I like texture, so I didn’t cook the bell peppers all the way, but the mushrooms were the softest, and the texture of the zucchini was in-between the other two vegetables. I used my quad-fecta of seasoning (excluding salt and pepper) of garlic powder, seasoning salt, tex mex seasoning, and chipotle mango seasoning. The amount of each seasoning is completely based on preference.
The final dish was plated with the pasta topped with the veggie mixture along with Parmesan cheese, and the carrots were plated on the side.
My modifications!
- Secret tip: I started my Alfredo sauce by making a roux (cooked butter and flower mix to make a runny paste), to give a thicker consistency without adding extra cheese.
- I added hot sauce because I like spicier food, but I’ve tried paprika or chipotle mango seasoning, and those work as well!
- I would avoid using cream cheese for beginners. It’s a dairy in a solid form, which can tamper with the consistency of your sauce if it is not tempered properly.
I found this recipe that has a few options on how to modify the recipe: https://therecipecritic.com/the-best-homemade-alfredo-sauce-ever/
Tips!
- Add pasta water to any sauce (dairy or non-dairy) to thin out the consistency
- Add flour to any dairy-based sauce to thicken the consistency, but make sure to cook the flour all the away to get rid of the raw/floury taste
- Rule of thumb for any vegetable: fork tender is the way to go
- Salt is tricky! It’s better to under-salt than over-salt your food! I used to think the reverse, but it’s wayyyy better to build-up the flavour instead of jeopardize the progress you made with salt.
The end result… 9/10 for sure! I think adding the veggies helped with balance the richness of the pasta. Although the pasta itself is about an 8.5/10, I’m quite impressed for being my first time making the sauce on my own. I’ve attempted regular tomato sauce in the past, but this was more satisfying to make because I really thought I failed in the middle of making the sauce. It wasn’t thickening how I envisioned, and after adding some more flour and shredded cheese, the consistency became perfect. The thickness is truly based on preference as well, and some prefer a thicker sauce (such as myself), and some prefer a smoother and lighter consistency. I would 1000% make this again, maybe without the veggie medley mix on top, just to keep it simple. I learned a lot about how to treat the process of making a sauce from scratch and the flexibility which exists within cooking. I always say I try my best to follow the recipe, but I get so excited that my brain reachers to different roads to reach the end of the cooking process. But, overall I was really happy with the results 🙂
Til’ next time, Shefali out…