The story of Alfredo sauce starts in Rome in the early 1900s, with a restaurateur named Alfredo di Lelio and a very simple dish he made for his wife. What happened after that, and how that dish became the cream-heavy pasta sauce most people in the US know today, is a story about how food changes as it travels.
The Original Dish
Around 1907 or 1908, Alfredo di Lelio owned a small restaurant in Rome called Alfredo alla Scrofa. His wife Ines had lost her appetite after giving birth to their son, and di Lelio made her a simple, nourishing version of fettuccine: wide egg noodles tossed with an unusually generous amount of high quality butter and aged Parmesan. The key was in the technique, he tossed the hot pasta vigorously with cold butter and starchy pasta water until they formed a creamy, glossy emulsion. No cream, no garlic, no other additions.
How It Became Famous
The dish became popular at the restaurant and di Lelio eventually moved to a larger space on the Via della Scrofa, still in Rome. The moment that made it internationally famous came in 1927, when American silent film actors Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks visited Rome on their honeymoon and ate at di Lelio’s restaurant. They were so taken with the dish that they reportedly gave di Lelio a golden fork and spoon as a gift, and the story spread through the celebrity press of the time, making the restaurant, and the dish, famous abroad.
How It Changed in America
When American restaurants began serving versions of fettuccine Alfredo, they modified the recipe significantly. Italian restaurants in the United States found that the original butter and pasta water emulsion was difficult to hold through a busy dinner service, since it needed to be made to order and served immediately. Adding heavy cream made the sauce more stable, easier to batch prepare, and more consistent for high volume service. This cream-based version became the standard in American restaurants and home cooking.
What the Original Tastes Like Today
Alfredo alla Scrofa is still operating in Rome, run by di Lelio’s descendants, and still serves the original version made with only butter and Parmesan. It tastes completely different from the cream-based American version: lighter, more delicate, and more directly of butter and aged cheese. You can make this original version at home using our authentic Italian Alfredo sauce recipe, or try the American adaptation using our classic homemade Alfredo sauce.
Why Both Versions Are Valid
The original Roman version and the American cream-based version are both legitimate dishes. They share a name and a heritage, but they are different in every meaningful culinary way. Neither one is more correct than the other, they simply come from different points in the dish’s history and serve different purposes in the kitchen.