Fettuccine Verde

This is by far the best beginner white sauce recipe EVER!!! If you mess up, try, try again because you really can't go wrong with this one. My family absolutely loves it and will not even order Alfredo dishes at restaurants anymore because they don't compare to this one that I make at home. It comes from a cookbook that is a third generation hand-me-down. It was my grandmother's cookbook, then my mother's and now mine. I probably refer to this cookbook more often than any other cookbook I own, so if you can find it on amazon.com I would buy it. It has the essentials, like how long to boil potatoes for potato salad, how long to boil eggs, how to clean a chicken...just the most basic "how to's" that everyone will need to know at some point or another, but that are impossible to look up. The cookbook is called Sunset Easy Basics for Good Cooking by the Editors of Sunset Books and Sunset Magazine...mine was published in 1982. So, here's the Alfredo recipe...

Makes 4 servings.

12 ounces fresh fettuccine, or 8 ounces dried fettuccini (boiling salted water)
6 tbs. butter
1 cup sliced green onions (optional)
2 cloves garlic, pressed (you NEED to invest in the Pampered Chef garlic press!)
1/2 pint (1 cup) heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 cups grated Parmesean cheese
salt and pepper
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg

1. Cook noodles al dente according to box instructions.

2. Melt butter in a wide frying pan over medium-high heat. Add green onions and garlic and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes.

3. Add cream and boil rapidly until slightly thickened and bubbles form, about 2 minutes.

4. Add hot drained noodles to pan and toss gently.

5. Add 1/2 cup of the cheese and toss until noodles are evenly coated.

6. Add another 1/2 cup of the cheese, salt and pepper to taste, and toss again.

7. Sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup of cheese and nutmeg over top of pasta just before serving.

Tips: This recipe goes very quickly. My advice for this recipe and any melted cheese with pasta recipe is to make sure everything is grated and measured ahead of time. You will not have time to measure or grate once you have started. Use a non-stick pan for this one, or you may run into trouble with sticking and burning...butter can burn fairly easily, and if you are not an expert with your pans that aren't coated it may be tricky.