- [Michael] You got it? - [Dwight] Mhm. - Okay. Fettuccine Alfredo. Time to carbo-load. Mm. - [Babish] Hey, what's up, guys? Welcome back to Binging with Babish where this week we're taking a look at the fettuccine Alfredo from The Office or more accurately, we're
using it as an excuse to make some fettuccine
Alfredo because I want some. First up, the absolute
bare bones for Alfredo, some jarred sauce and some boxed pasta which ironically is what I assume Alfredo's from The Office would have made because they're supposed
to be really, really bad. So we're cooking some fettuccine
to a state of doneness, draining off camera. You're just gonna have to
believe me that that's what I did and smothering with our jarred Alfredo, mixing for an even coat and the first problem you're
gonna notice with this Alfredo despite the thick gloopy sauce, it just doesn't adhere to
the store-bought pasta. It looks all kinda streaky and
greasy and not terribly good and that's because the American or cream-based version of this dish just doesn't play nice with
anybody but fresh pasta. The next thing you're gonna
notice is that this jarred sauce mostly tastes of garlic which is weird. I don't know who told Ragú
that there's garlic in Alfredo. For a truly great American Alfredo, we turn to America's Test Kitchen who prescribes that we
combine one cup of heavy cream and two tablespoons of
butter in a large saute pan cooking over medium high heat
until reduced by about half. At which point we're gonna add a half cup of cold heavy cream to
stop the cooking process then we are grating two ounces
of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and cooking a standard issue nine ounce package of fresh
pasta for about two minutes. At which point we're gonna
retrieve it with some tongs and drop it into the cream, butter mixture which we're gonna heat
over a medium low flame as we add our Parmesan cheese,
a good pinch of kosher salt and a few twists of freshly
ground black pepper. Stir that around just to combine and then we're also
gonna add a quarter cup of pasta cooking water which is gonna help
give us a cohesive sauce and a little grating of fresh nutmeg. It's just gonna taste really, really good. Toss that around until you've
got a creamy sauce, serve up. Maybe a little bit of extra
freshly grated nutmeg overtop and inspect. As you can see, the sauce doesn't look
overly greasy or gloopy. It's light and creamy and
is the most delicious way I could imagine carbo-loading before a 5K which you guys know I'm
a stickler for accuracy so I'm gonna package this up and tote it out to Prospect Park where Sawyer is gonna assist me the same way Dwight did
with the Parmesan cheese. I'm gonna eat as much as I possibly can for strength and endurance and run the loop which
is almost a perfect 5K. Sure, I haven't ran in a year and a half but this will probably be fine, right? As you can see from my body cam, I did indeed run the full 5K without puke breaks or water
breaks just like Michael and in the end, I really
cannot recommend it. What's more is I know the
Italians will absolutely murder me unless I make an authentic pasta al burro. So to start, we're gonna
make our own fresh pasta. Into a food processor goes 12
ounces of all-purpose flour and one teaspoon of salt. Process briefly together and then we're adding eight ounces of eggs which I did not measure but the beauty of the
food processor method is that you can add flour as you go. So instead of having to trash this batch, I added a little bit at a time and processed it for about a minute so as to build up a
complex network of gluten and give the pasta a lovely chew. Once processed, we're gonna
wrap it in plastic wrap and let it rest, maybe after a ceremonial
punch in the face, for 30 minutes before
dividing, rolling and cutting. To do this, we're basically
gonna grab us a hunk of pasta, generously flour it and roll it out ever
thinner one notch at a time on our pasta roller until it
gets a little bit too long for our delicate sensibilities and we have to cut it in half and continue to roll
it out into two sheets of delicate fresh pasta which we are going to once
again generously flour before passing it through the cutters which should help prevent the
pasta from sticking together when we twist it into
a darling little nest and arrange said nest on a
heavily floured rim baking sheet. Next up, pasta al burro is
traditionally prepared tableside so we have to ladle some boiling water into our intended heat-proof
mixing bowl to keep it warm then we are cooking our fresh pasta for anywhere from 60 to
90 seconds until it floats at which point it's ready
to be tossed together with cheese and butter
to make pasta al burro or semi-traditional fettuccine Alfredo. Into our heated bowl goes
five ounces of unsalted butter and two and a half ounces of freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano followed by our fresh cooked pasta then we're gonna top that pasta with an additional two and a half ounces of freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano as well as a quarter cup of
our starchy pasta cooking water which is essential to create
a creamy emulsified sauce. Next up, we're tossing this around with a hefty pinch of kosher salt and no freshly ground black pepper. That is not a traditional
ingredient in pasta al burro. Bonus points if you can toss
it in the air a little bit to aerate the sauce then you can twist her up with
your favorite carving fork and serve with a little bit of
freshly grated Parm overtop. Now, like most classic
Italian pasta dishes, this one's greatness
comes from its simplicity, quality ingredients coming together to make something beautiful but I gotta say my absolute favorite part is not having to run a 5K afterward. (calm music)
is that the carving fork his best friend Jon Favreau gave him?
Loved this one, and I really appreciate that you ran the 5K!
/u/OliverBabish is that t-shirt going to be for sale at any point? I'd like to buy one.
sees the video title
knows that /u/OliverBabish typically tests all aspects of the media source
...oh no...
Lord, beer me strength.
I kinda wish this was the one time he just boiled pasta and dumped a jar of sauce on it and that was it.
Yo Sawyer looking fit.
OK, wait.
I'm all in on the "American Alfredo" being different than the original. I like both for different reasons.
I'm also on board with jar alfredos being decidedly uninspiring, even Newman's Own, which surprised me.
I'm on board with proper Alfredo not having garlic.
But I take umbrage at the idea that proper american style cream based "Fauxfredo" has no garlic.
It's certainly not garlic-forward, and not like a whole head, but a single minced garlic clove in that recipe is absolutely the right call.
Since they literally are two different recipes sharing the same name (I'm from Cincinnati, ask me about the term Chili) garlic in the cream based one is proper bordering on required.
I'm keto so no pasta here. Now i'm wondering about putting this on cauliflower rice.
To be truly office accurate, he would have run 5k away from the office, not a 5k loop. Shame on him
From the Youtube comments:
Filippo Giovanni Nucera "Fun fact: In Italy we often call it 'pranzo del marito cornuto' (lunch of the cuckold), because it takes nothing to make, leaving the wife with more time to, well, you got it"
Thought I'd share this gem of information here.