Seafood Fettuccine Alfredo

Ever since I returned from my trip to Italy I have been dreaming of making fresh pasta and my dreams finally came true a few days ago. I planned a family dinner for which I prepared two different types of pasta as well as my now famous poached pears for dessert. It was definitely a big undertaking to make both pastas at once and create the entire meal from scratch all by myself in five hours, but I did it and I was extremely proud.

Each pasta took me an hour to make starting from making the dough and finishing with the desired cut and shaped pasta. For this particular pasta I had to use a pasta machine, generously given to me by a family friend, in order to roll the pasta into sheets and then cut it into long strips. I didn't have a drying rack so I improvised by using the edge of a large bowl as well as some baking pans to lay out the pasta.

Although I used the recipe I was taught in Italy to make the pasta itself, I completely improvised when it came to the creamy Alfredo sauce. Initially I went to my favorite food blogging website tastespotting.com but a lot of the recipes seemed to have too many ingredients and steps. I knew I would be spending a lot of time on making the pasta itself so I didn't want to laden myself with a complicated sauce as well. I ended up using cream cheese, milk, and Parmesan cheese as my base and then thinned it out with some of the water that I used to cook the pasta.

Personally I'm not a big fan of creamy sauces anyway...I'm more of a tomato/marinara kind of girl but I was quite satisfied with the result. The next day when my friend came over I gave her some to try and she said it was great and just like a real Alfredo sauce. I think the seafood also helped to add some flavor.

Overall I was pleased with how smoothly the entire dinner turned out. At first I was afraid I had bitten off more than I could chew but by breaking down the tasks step-by-step I was able to accomplish everything I had set out to do and the dinner turned out to be a success. Everyone complimented me on the dinner and we had a great time enjoying each others company in the spirit of the holidays.

Seafood Fettuccine Alfredo

For the pasta:

• 3-4 cups flour 
• 5 large eggs
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil

1. Start with 3 cups of flour in a large bowl and form a well in the middle to hold the eggs, salt, and olive oil.
2. Scramble the eggs with a fork and start to pick up the flour from inside the well, incorporating it gradually until the eggs are no longer runny.
3. Using your hands, bring all the flour from the outside of the well into the center and form the entire mass into a ball. If necessary add more flour if the dough feels too wet.
4. Once the dough has formed, knead it until it is smooth and satiny but not too tough. Use the heel of your hand and give it a quarter turn after each push into the center. 
5. Cut the dough into 5-6 pieces and cover all but one piece with a damp, clean dish towel to prevent it from drying out.
6. Start with the rollers at the widest setting and feed a piece of dough through. Fold the dough into thirds and press down firmly at the seams. Feed it through again with the folds perpendicular to the rollers. 
7. Repeat the folding and rolling about 4-6 times or until the dough feels smooth and satiny. If it starts to feel sticky dust it with some flour.
8. Decrease the space between the rollers by one notch and feed the dough through again. Without folding the dough, continue to decrease the space, one notch at a time, while feeding the dough through the rollers. If the dough becomes too long and unmanageable, cut it in half crosswise. 
9. Keep thinning and stretching the dough until it is the desired thickness, most likely the second-to-last notch setting on most machines.
10. To cut the pasta, feed the sheet of dough through the cutting rollers. A wider cutter will produce fettuccine; a narrower cutter will produce chitarra or tagliarini noodles.
11. Once the pasta has been cut it can be laid out to dry or cooked immediately. Dried pasta can be frozen for later use. Please note that fresh pasta cooks very quickly, between 5-8 minutes depending on the thickness of the noodles.

Note: It is easiest to do all the rolling and thinning and then do all the cutting. Lightly sprinkle each sheet of dough with flour to keep from sticking and cover with a dish towel to keep from drying out until ready to cut.

For the sauce:

• 2 cups (16 oz) cream cheese
• 1 cup milk
• ½-¾ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• Salt and pepper

1. In a small saucepan over medium heat combine the cream cheese and milk. Stir or whisk constantly until the cream cheese has melted.
2. Add the Parmesan cheese and oregano. Continue to stir until the cheese has all melted and become fully incorporated. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
3. Thin the sauce to desired consistency by slowly adding some reserved water that the pasta was cooked in.

To assemble:

1. Cook two pounds of assorted seafood and set aside. 
2. Cook the pasta and drain the water, reserving about one cup to thin out the sauce.
3. Pour the sauce into the empty pot from the pasta and add the seafood. Mix until thoroughly combined.
4. Return the pasta to the pot and mix until evenly coated with sauce.