Italy

Italia! The land of pizza, pasta, and most importantly where the Lizzie McGuire took place! This week in International Foods we dove into the Italian culture.

Italian cusine varies based on the region of Italy being discussed. For example, in Venice, they use spices much more than in other parts of Italy because geographically, Venice was a convenient port. Since there was a lot of trading done, they had access to a lot of spices. Another example is in Parma, Parma itself is full of gradually sloping hills. The consistent dry breeze made it an ideal location for curing and aging pork products. In the south of Italy, it is very warm. As a result, they perfected their techniques for drying pasta and preserving it rather than making a batch of fresh pasta when it was needed. 

Fettuccine Alfredo
Ingredients

• 1-8 oz. cream cheese, cut in small pieces
• 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine
• 1/2 cup milk
• 8 oz. Fettuccine noodles
• 6 cups water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Recipe

1. In a large saucepan combine cream cheese, Parmesan, butter, and milk.
2. On medium-low temperature, heat the mixture while stirring constantly.
3. Heat and stir until it becomes smooth and creamy.
4. While sauce is being prepared, being 6 cups of water and the salt to a boil.
5. When the water begins to boil, add noodles and reduce heat to medium-high.
6. Cook until tender, but firm.
7. Using a colander, drain pasta from water.
8. Add pasta to the cheese sauce and toss lightly, coating well.
9. Serve hot.

My Thoughts

Considering I am a picky eater, Italian food is one style of food that for the most part I like. Pizza, pasta, spaghetti, love it. Fettuccine Alfredo however, not so much. If I'm eating any type of pasta, it's going to be spaghetti with a red sauce. I've never veered about from that until I tried this dish, and probably will be sticking to the spaghetti with red sauce from here on. The pasta we made had way too much sauce which just kind of ruined the dish. I would recommend halving the sauce. Also, we made our own egg noodles, which I actually thought was really cool. It was a pain, but they turned out well. I would've have preferred to make a dish like lasagna or another type of pasta but with red sauce for Italy. This unit wasn't my favorite, but it wasn't the worst either. Off to the next.