Italian · Pasta
Fettucine alfredo

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Method
- In a medium saucepan, stir the clotted cream, butter and cornflour over a low-ish heat and bring to a low simmer. Turn off the heat and keep warm.
- Meanwhile, put the cheese and nutmeg in a small bowl and add a good grinding of black pepper, then stir everything together (don’t add any salt at this stage).
- Put the pasta in another pan with 2 tsp salt, pour over some boiling water and cook following pack instructions (usually 3-4 mins). When cooked, scoop some of the cooking water into a heatproof jug or mug and drain the pasta, but not too thoroughly.
- Add the pasta to the pan with the clotted cream mixture, then sprinkle over the cheese and gently fold everything together over a low heat using a rubber spatula. When combined, splash in 3 tbsp of the cooking water. At first, the pasta will look wet and sloppy: keep stirring until the water is absorbed and the sauce is glossy. Check the seasoning before transferring to heated bowls. Sprinkle over some chives or parsley, then serve immediately.
Cooking notes
Pasta scales beautifully — water and salt should track the dry weight; sauce can be reduced slightly if you scale up beyond a single pan.
For volume-to-weight conversions of any ingredient — flour, sugar, butter, salts — use the ingredient converter. To translate the recipe's oven temperature between °C, °F and gas mark, see the temperature converter.
When you scale this recipe up or down, remember that cooking time does not scale linearly. A doubled cake takes longer, but not twice as long; a doubled soup takes roughly twice as long. The cooking-time guide gives sensible starting estimates by dish geometry.
Recipe video
Fettucine alfredo
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Each opens in a new tab so the timer keeps running. The math is auditable on the guide page below each converter, with worked examples and where the numbers come from.
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OpenTemperature
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OpenCooking time
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OpenPan size
9-inch round vs 8-inch square vs 13×9. The math is surface area, not diameter — and the converter shows you both.
OpenLength
Inches and centimetres — for when a recipe says “cut into 1-inch pieces” and your ruler is metric.
OpenIngredient density
A cup of flour weighs 120 g; a cup of honey weighs 340. The full table of ~40 staples, with sources.
OpenOpen in main scaler
Edit the recipe text, scale by serving count, and copy the result. Same parser as the in-page scaler, more room to work.
OpenFrom the journal
Original essays on the small details.
The why behind the technique — original writing on the ingredient and equipment choices that separate a good cook from a frustrated one.
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Cold, softened, melted — three states, three completely different bakes
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Go deeper
Where this recipe sits in the wider tradition.
Each guide below is a real essay on the cuisine or the category — pillars, staples, techniques worth learning — paired with a curated grid of recipes filed under it.
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