My Quest

Following my epiphany at Trattoria La Festa in Stowe my quest was to find a recipe for a light creamy sauce worthy of that bowl of Fettuccine Alfredo. Over the years I've tried so many recipes – some ok, some definitely not.

A couple of years ago I came across “The Leftovers Handbook” by Suzy Bowler – remember what I said in the Guilty Pleasure post about the tab marking system when you're taking your first glance through your new cookery book, here's a photograph of my copy of the book :

The tabs, or rather the number of tabs indicate how good a book this is and I am delighted to report that my quest is over since the book contains, in my view, the best and definitely the nearest version of the sauce I had in Stowe. I know that I've written the words “keep it simple” in the past and time and again this proves to be the case. The bizarre thing is that I've spent hours try to recreate this sauce and it turns out that it takes three ingredients and takes only a few minutes to make.

For ease of reference, here it is :

Alfredo Sauce

Alfredo is traditionally served with pasta – however it's so good and tasty it lends itself to other dishes and particularly leftovers.

1 tbsp unsalted butter

200ml double cream

50g freshly grated Parmesan, plus more for sprinkling

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Gently heat the butter and the cream together, stirring, until the butter has melted, then stir in the Parmesan.

Slowly bring to a gentle boil, turn down the heat and simmer, stir continuously for a minute or so until you have a smooth, creamy sauce.

This sauce can be made ahead.

The above recipe would be sufficient for two servings – enough to coat 225g uncooked pasta. Traditionally there are no additions to Alfredo although I've had it served with petit pois.

Thank you to The Leftovers Handbook – you've made a grumpy old woman very happy!