Fettuccine Alfredo

This weekend was very lamb-y, but today was nothing if not lionish, (although I DID have my first flower spotting of the season, a whole mess of snow drops and some flowers that were tiny yellow fuzzy balls. I have no idea what they were, but my neighbor had a slew of them) so I thought what better for dinner than fettuccine alfredo. Bethie, and other poor lactose intolerant souls, this is not for you. I got the recipe from wikipedia, of all places, but that also means I can just copy and paste the recipe below (ignore the links in the ingredient list):

The tricks to making a good Alfredo are gentle cooking and a proper balance of ingredients. The sauce should be just thick enough to coat the pasta without pooling on the bottom of the plate, but it should not be so thick as to be glue-like. The sauce can be made in the time that it takes to bring a pot of water to the boil and cook the pasta.

Fettuccine Alfredo should be served immediately, because as it cools the large amount of fat in the sauce will congeal too much. If it cannot be served immediately it should be made thinner in the pan than you want it when it's plated and presented.

This recipe will sauce one pound of pasta and serves 6 as a first course.

Ingredients

• 1¾ cups (400 ml) heavy cream
• 6 tbs. unsalted butter
• 8.5 ounces (240 grams) grated Parmesan cheese or Asagio cheese
• 1 tsp. salt
• fresh-ground black pepper
• pinch of fresh-ground nutmeg

Preparation

1. Combine 1¼ cups (300ml) cream and the butter in a saute pan large enough to accommodate the sauce and later the pound of pasta. Heat over a low flame, stirring frequently, until the butter is melted and the cream comes to a bare simmer. Remove the pan from the heat once the butter is evenly incorporated into the cream.
2. Cook the pasta, draining it a little before it reaches the al dente stage. The pasta should be slightly undercooked before being added to the sauce because it will continue to cook while the sauce is being finished.
3. Drain the pasta and add it to the pan, along with the remaining ½ cup (100ml) of cream, the cheese, the salt, the nutmeg, and several grinds of the pepper mill.
4. Heat the pasta and sauce over a low flame, tossing continuously, until the cheese melts into the sauce and the sauce thickens slightly, about 1 - 2 minutes.

Results: Wow. That's a lot of cream and cheese. Even more cheese than my macaroni au gratin, which I will post the next time I make it. I think it was, if you can believe it, too creamy. Maybe it would benefit by having some of the cream replaced by normal milk? I don't know how that would affect the end results. Also, I didn't use NEARLY that much cheese, maybe more like 2/3 of a can of grated parm (6 oz) instead of 1+ cans. Finally, I decided it was still missing something, and it wasn't more cheese. It needed a little....kick. I decided the whole thing was drastically improved by a little sprinkle of Old Bay. BAM! Even Alton Brown of Good Eats fame says it's his favorite spice. Now that's something.

Casualties: possibly a few arteries. Will let you know later.