Fettuccine Alfredo () is a pasta dish consisting of fettuccine tossed with butter and Parmesan cheese which is melted and emulsified to form a rich cheese sauce coating the pasta. Originating in Rome in the early 20th century, the recipe is now known primarily in the United States and other countries.
Outside of Italy, cream is sometimes used to thicken the sauce, and ingredients such as chicken, shrimp, or broccoli may be added when Fettuccine Alfredo is served as a main course. Neither cream nor other additional ingredients are used in Italy, where the dish is rarely called "Alfredo" outside of Rome. this recipe for "Roman macaroni" () calls for cooking pasta in broth or water and adding butter, "good cheese" (the variety is not specified) and "sweet spices".
Roman creation
Modern Fettuccine Alfredo was created by Alfredo Di Lelio in Rome in the early 20th century. According to family lore, in 1892 Alfredo began to work in a restaurant located in Piazza Rosa that was run by his mother, Angelina. He cooked his first fettuccine al triplo burro ( – later called fettuccine all'Alfredo, and eventually "Fettuccine Alfredo") Recipes attributed to Di Lelio include only three ingredients: fettuccine, "young" Parmesan cheese and butter.
thumb|left|Alfredo Di Lelio in front of Ristorante Alfredo,
Piazza Rosa was condemned to make way for the construction of the Galleria Colonna () and his mother's restaurant was forced to close. Di Lelio subsequently opened his own restaurant on the via della Scrofa (). Following a visit to Ristorante Alfredo by the American actors Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks – who, at the time of his visit in the early 1920s was known as "The King of Hollywood", Alfredo began to serve his signature dish using a golden fork and spoon bearing the inscription "To Alfredo the King of the noodles" (said to have been a gift from the famous Hollywood couple in gratitude for Alfredo's hospitality).
After the war, in 1950, Di Lelio opened a new restaurant in Piazza Augusto Imperatore with his son Armando. He vigorously promoted the restaurant by creating a celebrity wall of fettuccine themed photographs showing himself (in humorous poses, with his pasta and gold cutlery) serving dignitaries, politicians, famous musicians and film stars such as James Stewart, Bob Hope, Anthony Quinn, Bing Crosby, Gary Cooper, Jack Lemmon, Ava Gardner, Tyrone Power, Sophia Loren, Cantinflas, and many others. The dish was so well known that Di Lelio was invited to demonstrate it both in Italy and abroad.
thumb|upright=0.75|left|Ristorante Alfredo menu, undated
Alfredo's noodles have been extolled in US newspapers, magazines, cookbooks, and guidebooks since as early as the 1920s. In one of her popular travel guides, So You're Going to Rome!, Clara Laughlin writes, "Most travellers would blush to admit they had been in Rome and had not eaten Alfredo's fettuccine al burro." Sinclair Lewis's 1922 novel Babbitt makes reference to "a little trattoria on the Via della Scrofa where you get the best fettuccine in the world".
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the American food writer and restaurateur George Rector wrote about "Alfredo's noodles", describing in detail the restaurateur's elaborate tableside preparation ceremony; he did not give the dish a specific name.