Capellini Alfredo: Fettucini Alfredo’s Long Lost Cousin
What’s better than noodles slathered with creamy white sauce? (Bonus points if you have homemade garlic bread to go with it)
….
Yeah, practically nothing.
Fettucini alfredo has always been a favorite of mine, for basically as long as I can remember. My favorite meal as a child consisted of fettucini alfredo, garlic bread, and caesar salad tossed with extra caesar, cheese, and croutons. My mom swears it’s because she ate fettucini alfredo almost every day when she was pregnant with me which very well might be the case!
Regardless, the love of alfredo sauce has carried on with me and now that I have a family of my own, I want to be able to share the love and make it from scratch. At first, the idea of making a creamy white sauce sounds a little daunting but it’s really simple to do.
But before we go further, just so we’re all on the same page, I want to break down what “fettucini alfredo” actually means. Fettucini is the type of noodle used (flat, wide, and long) and alfredo is the white creamy sauce that tops the noodles.
Although fettucini alfredo is such a classic dish that you almost don’t want to change it, I’ve crossed the line and added a new spring in it’s step. It’s like the new age noodle alfredo — 2015 style.
I did this by replacing the fettucini with Jovial’s brown rice capellini (thicker than angel hair, thinner than spaghetti). Not hating on a plain cream sauce because it’s good in it’s own special way, but I decided to add lemon zest to the sauce to give it depth, dimension, and a refreshing after taste.
It’s still creamy, buttery, and melt-in-your-mouth yummy but the lemon zest really turns up the “OH MY GOSH IT’S SO GOOD” factor. Lemon zest also helps the sauce thicken a little without having to use flour.
While I know some people are not fans of green peas, they actually work really well with this dish. That being said, if you are a dedicated pea-hater, you can opt out and the capellini alfredo will still be amazing. Another thought is to add some sautéed mushrooms which would be super delicious… Wait, why have I only thought of this right now?!
Don’t forget to include a big caesar salad with homemade caesar dressing, homemade gluten-free croutons, and homemade garlic bread… and wine, definitely add the wine!
- 1 package capellini brown rice pasta (this is the exact brand I get)
- 1¼ cup raw cream or organic heavy whipping cream
- zest of ½ a lemon
- 2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
- 10 tablespoon pastured butter (Reserve 2 TBL for pasta)
- 1½ cup raw grated parmigiano regianio cheese
- ½ tsp unrefined sea salt (my favorite unrefined salt)
- unrefined kosher salt if you have it for the pasta water (find it here)
- ½ cup - ¾ cup frozen organic (no salt) peas
- Add a good heaping of kosher salt (don't be shy!) and a little dash of olive oil to the water to give it some flavor. Boil pasta according to manufacturers directions.
- Meanwhile, in a separate sauce pan add cream, lemon zest, lemon juice and mix to combine
- Turn the burner on medium heat, add butter and stir until butter has melted
- Once the butter has melted, stir in the salt and parmigiano cheese
- Lower the heat to medium low and continue to stir until the sauce thickens *anywhere from 5-8 minutes
- Halfway before the sauce is done, add in green peas
- Once the pasta is done, add a 2 TBL of butter to the pasta and mix well
- Add the cream sauce to the pasta and mix well; serve immediately
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