Tonite we tried making pasta alfredo for the first time. We used the (recently trending?) bowl method so we

  1. Cooked the pasta (about ~8oz of cellentani/cavatappi)
  2. Scooped it all directly from the water into a big metal bowl
  3. Added about ~3tbsp butter, cut into separate pads
  4. Stir/shook it all til the butter melted (I thought we did it pretty vigorously!)
  5. Slowly added in ~1c of parmesan that we’d grated ourselves while continuing to stir & shake
  6. Noticed that the cheese was becoming a bit stuck together/gloopy despite adding it slowly
  7. Tried adding some more butter & pasta water while stirring and shaking
  8. Put it back in the (empty) pasta pot to try to use some of that residual heat to melt the cheese more, still stirring/shaking

Putting it back in the warm pot did seem to help the cheese melt a bit better, but it still ended up kinda gloopy/cheese stringy rather than a creamy sauce, even after we added a bit more butter & reserved pasta water.

We still added some pepper and ate it, along with the chicken we’d made to add too, it wasn’t a bad meal overall, it just wasn’t the creamy sauce we were going for.

Do you think maybe we lost too much heat while waiting for the butter to melt? Or did we need a specific kind of parm rather than just a regular one that we grated ourselves? Or our stir & shake wasn’t vigorous enough despite our best efforts?

I know you can’t say for certain, but any tips to help improve our chances of success next time would be so appreciated! Thanks! :)

  • notthebees@reddthat.com
    4·
    22 days ago

    This is like a really bastardized? (I can’t think of a better word, it’s too harsh) cross between cacio e pepe and buttered noodles? Basically the sauce broke.

    Maybe it lost too much heat. You may also need more starch? How much water did you use when cooking the pasta.

    Also the way it glooped up feels like the cheese melted before actually being emulsified.

    • TastySoup@piefed.socialOPEnglish
      1·
      22 days ago

      Yeaaa I think you’re right that I didn’t start with enough pasta water so it didn’t come together properly when I added the cheese! Another commenter shared a more “traditional” method, I think maybe I’ll try it that way next time. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

      • notthebees@reddthat.com
        1·
        22 days ago

        you could theoretically reduce the pasta water before adding it. I use wide shallow pans for pasta for this exact reason