Fettuccine Alfredo: La Dolce Vita Recipe

Alfredo alla Scrofa is not just a restaurant; a time machine. The walls of this Roman institution are covered with pictures of stars such as John Wayne, Tony Curtis, Kirk Douglas, Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck.

“This was La Dolce Vita,” said owner Mario Mozzetti.

And while the movie stars weren’t on set, they were eating Fettuccine Alfredo, which was born here more than a century ago.

Mozzetti is the third generation the mantecatoror “creamer,” the one who stirs the noodles inside the bowl. It all started, he says, when the wife of the first owner, Alfredo Di Lellio, had a baby, then became ill and lost her appetite. Alfredo found a solution in this kitchen: fresh egg pasta is so thin, it takes longer to cut than to cook.

The secret, says Mozzetti, is the cooking time: “More or less, 30 seconds, instead of three, four, five minutes, which is the usual cooking time for egg pasta.”

It is then added to the dish, along with the pasta water, just a touch of butter, and grated, 24-year-old parmesan. Mozzetti then magically combines the ingredients, almost like weaving. “This is a dance!” he said. “This is the waltz that Alfredo dedicated to his wife. It’s simple, but very, very simple and complex at the same time.”

That sophisticated simplicity eventually caught the hearts of a real Hollywood couple. The year was 1920, and Mary Pickford had just married Douglas Fairbanks – a worldwide sensation covered with bated breath by the media. After falling in love with each other, they fell in love with Fettuccine Alfredo on their honeymoon in Rome.

And Mozzetti showed us a message Pickford wrote in 1951: “‘Alfredo the great, yesterday, today, tomorrow, and always, Alfredo.’ He loved this place,” he said.

As a token of gratitude, Fairbanks and Pickford give Alfredo a golden fork and spoon. But the real thing, Mozzetti said, is long overdue: “In the ’40s and during the second war, unfortunately, the Nazis took the first.”

For more than a century, anyone in show business had to take a trip, including playwright Arthur Miller: “Arthur Miller shocked me,” Mozzetti said. “I told you to touch me and touch me. ‘Why?’ ‘Cause you were Marilyn Monroe’s husband. Come on. I can’t stand it!'”

With that kind of legend, it’s no wonder how this pasta found its way into cookbooks and restaurants across America. And like a Hollywood script, this story has many times more than a pasta dish.

A short walk from Alfredo alla Scrofa, there is another restaurant with a rival claim. It’s called Il Vero Alfredo. [Translation: The REAL Alfredo.] Run by Chiara Cuomo (granddaughter of i Alfredo De Lelio), and his mother, Ines de Lelio. And it uses what Cuomo calls “real Fettuccine Alfredo.”

And there are more celebrities on their wall – names like Ava Gardner, Walt Disney, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Sylvester Stallone and Ronald Reagan.

Even its golden fork and spoon!

Asked about the story that the Nazis stole them, Cuomo replied, “It’s not true. It’s fake!”

Here is where things get complicated: During World War II, the creator of the dish, Alfredo de Lelio, sold the original restaurant to one of his waiters – Mario Mozzetti’s uncle. Then, after the war, Alfredo de Lelio decided to open another one restaurant.

Since then, the two have been living together, sadly – each is a royal mecca, from Hollywood to Washington. Ines de Lelio said the Kennedys enjoyed Fettuccine Alfredo there. “My grandfather said to Kennedy they will bring luck and health,” said Ines de Lelio.

Despite their differences, both restaurants can agree on at least one thing: In America, we tend to do Fettuccine Alfredo wrong. “With shrimp, creamy, I don’t like it,” Cuomo said.

According to Mozzetti’s calculations, there are more than 50 varieties of Alfredo Sauce sold in the US market. How do you feel about other people getting rich with Fettuccine Alfredo? “It’s very sad. And no one knows, at least, they don’t know about this place, this place,” he said.

Or, rather, both places. Two pillars, besides, or because of the rivalry that created and maintained the Italian-American classic.

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Story produced by Anna Matranga. Editor: Emanuele Secci.

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