Martha's 3-Ingredient Fettuccine Alfredo

Martha's three-ingredient fettuccine Alfredo is a silky, decadent dish and an exercise in simplicity. Butter, Parmesan cheese, and pasta are only three items you'll need to gather to make this classic recipe—and they're an irresistible combination.

Fettuccine Alfredo is thought to have been invented about a hundred years ago by Alfredo di Lelio, who served it at his restaurant in Rome. This version from Martha is easy and much like the original, You will need to get out your mixer to combine the cheese and butter, but trust us, it’s well worth it. The dish tastes creamy, but is cream free. Some versions add heavy cream to the sauce, but there’s no need—try one bite of Martha’s fettuccine Alfredo and you’ll agree.

History of Fettuccine Alfredo

Fettuccine Alfredo was created in the early 20th century but a Roman restauranteur named Alfredo di Lelio. As the story goes, two of the biggest American film stars at the time, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, ate the dish on their Italian honeymoon in the 1920s and fell in love with it. (They were so enamored by the dish, in fact, that they returned to Rome years later to gift de Lelio a golden fork and spoon inscribed with the words "To Alfredo de Lelio, the king of noodles.)

After returning home to Hollywood, they recreated the dish for their famous dinner parties. Fettuccine Alfredo grew in popularity, finding its way into American cookbooks as early as 1928 and home kitchens from coast to coast.

The 3 Ingredients for Martha's Fettuccine Alfredo

Like the original recipe, Martha's version calls for just three ingredients: fettuccine, butter, and Parmesan cheese.

Butter: To keep the dish from becoming too salty, use unsalted butter for this recipe. A rich European butter will give you the silkiest result, but any good quality butter will do.

Parmesan: Be sure to use real Italian Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese for this recipe. You've heard this before, but it really does pay to buy a wedge and grate it yourself at home. Tack on a couple of extra ounces to account for the weight of the rind when you're shopping to ensure you're ending up with eight ounces of grated cheese.

Pasta: Long, flat fettuccine noodles hold the silky sauce especially well—we don't recommend swapping in another pasta shape. And, when salting the water, be generous; it should taste just about as briny as the sea.

Why We Use an Electric Mixer for This Recipe

Simply tossing cooked pasta with butter and grated cheese would certainly delicious, but it would not an Alfredo sauce make. Instead, Martha's recipe calls for beating together the room-temperature butter and freshly grated cheese with a stand mixer until the two ingredients create a uniform paste. When stirred together with the hot noodles and a good splash of pasta cooking liquid, the paste binds with the starch to form a silky, luxurious sauce. The beating step is essential for this recipe and is well worth the effort of pulling out your mixer.