Homemade Alfredo Sauce

Yesterday Josh's grandparents from his mom's side came up from their summer home in upstate New York to visit us, and we had a really enjoyable visit. Josh's grandparents invited us to stay with them in New York sometime in August, and I really hope we are able to do that because I would love to see that area (especially in the fall) and Josh's childhood home. That night we went to Bertucci's for dinner and it was quite good. I ordered the lemon chicken piccata:

Sadly, I don't have the recipe for it, but it was a simple enough dish that I imagine if you had any kind of real background in cooking (which I really don't) you would be able to re-create it pretty easily. If I had to guess I would say the sauce had lemon, white wine, olive oil, butter, salt, pepper, and it was topped with capers, and Parmesan cheese (the Parmesan was my addition after-the-fact, as everything is better with cheese, especially Parmesan). 

Anyway, given Josh's family is Italian, my love of Parmesan cheese, and my inability to provide the recipe for the lemon chicken piccata, I thought I should at least try to redeem myself by posting my Aunt Vicky's recipe for homemade alfredo sauce. As an avid consumer of fettuccine alfredo, I have tried many many many different types of, and recipes for, alfredo sauce, from the jarred Ragu to the packets of just-add-milk to some terrible little number I found in Cooking Light magazine, to the flavorless stuff you sometimes get at restaurants. Fortunately for me, my aunt is a chef who, after owning her own restaurant overseas for a time, now manages a kitchen at a national restaurant chain. She bestowed this little gem upon me about two years ago, and now I will pass it on.

(Picture from my terrible camera phone)

Heavy Cream (1-2 cups)

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup butter

Fresh grated Parmesan cheese

Milk

Nutmeg

Pepper

Salt

Minced fresh garlic, or garlic powder

Melt your butter in a small frying pan on low-medium heat, and add flour to melted butter to create a roux (a roux functions a thickening agent, so I'm told). Once you have mixed these, remove them from heat immediately (you do not want to brown your roux, it should be very light in color) and set aside. In a saucepan, put in your fresh garlic, about 1-2 cloves or to taste, and let that get warm (maybe with a tiny tiny tiny bit of butter). If you opt to use garlic powder, skip the garlic step for now. Add about a tablespoon or two of your roux and pour in 1-2 cups heavy cream and stir. 

[Note: How much roux and how much heavy cream you choose to put in depends on how much sauce you want to make and how thick you want it to be. If your sauce gets too thin you can always add more roux later, or add milk if it gets too thick (keeping in mind that when you add the Parmesan and stir your sauce over medium heat for a while it will thicken, so err on the side of a small amount of roux to begin with).]

Add your fresh grated Parmesan cheese, about as much in your average-sized brick (or more if you are making a lot), and stir on medium heat for about 5 minutes or as long as it takes to allow the cheese to melt and the sauce to thicken as much as its going to. Add milk or roux as necessary, so that the sauce has a creamy texture. At this point simply add nutmeg and pepper to taste. Fresh grated Parmesan seems to be to be saltier than the kind that comes pre-shredded, but you may want to add more salt or garlic/garlic powder to taste. And that's it!