There is nothing better than to delight yourself with good pasta, accompanied by a very well-made sauce and a wine that harmonizes perfectly with all this, is not it?
The variety of pasta, sauces, and wines is immense, and there are several to satisfy all tastes and palates around the world because pasta is an ancient food that, over time, has been able to conquer every corner of the world.
And the star pasta of our today’s article is Fettuccine, which is one of the most beloved by all, which became even more famous after Alfredo di Lelio created the delicious recipe of Fettuccine Alfredo for his beloved wife who had just given birth to the couple’s first child.
In addition, Fettuccine is a long and delicious pasta that can be combined with the most diverse types of sauce, since its elongated and flattened shape combines perfectly with the most varied existing sauces.
The fettuccine mass
Fettuccine means “small ribbons” and is a dough made initially of eggs and flour very popular in Roman cuisine. In addition to being a well-elongated dough, it is also flattened, which makes it very similar to linguine, cutlery, and tagliatelle.
It is most commonly found in the new version, in addition to being tastier, but it can also be found in the dry version and colored versions that take spinach, beets, and carrots in the dough.
As mentioned, the fettuccine pasta is very similar to linguine, tagliatelle, and talharim, even more so with the latter. Still, the difference between Fettuccine and talharim is exceptionally subtle and is present in each pasta’s width.
The flattened noodles cut into strips, whether thin or thick, appeared a long time ago in Sicily, located in southern Italy, with the name of talharim, or tagghiarine in Italian, and the width of the noodles strips varied between half and a centimeter, it depended on who cut the dough.
Fettuccine, however, is a much more recent type of pasta cutting because it appeared in the middle of the 13th century, in the northern region of Italy, and the machines that already existed in that region to cut the pasta cut wider wires.
Now, nowadays, pasta cuts are given a specific name depending on the thickness and width of each cut, for example, angel hair is the thinnest pasta cut, followed by spaghetti that is rounded, and cutlery, which is a flattened centimeter.
Soon after comes the Fettuccine, which is very little wider than the cutlery, then the tagliatelle, which is slightly wider than the Fettuccine, finally, the thickest pappardelle and flattest cut.
Sauces and wines that harmonize with Fettuccine
Having this pasta in the kitchen is like having a “Joker” ingredient since Fettuccine can be combined with various types of sauces and side dishes, from a vegetarian or seafood fettuccine recipe to recipes white sauce and red sauce.
In the beginning, Fettuccine was most commonly consumed with Bolognese sauce, meat ragu or chicken ragu. Still, the most common was always to consume it with a red sauce based on tomatoes, especially in northern Italy, where this pasta cut came about, and the red sauce was the most consumed.
Who dared to innovate and serve Fettuccine with a white sauce in this Italian region that special red sauce, was Alfredo di Lelio, who was the creator of Fettuccine Alfredo di Roma. A dish composed of fettuccine noodles with a sauce based on butter and Parmesan cheese.
But of course, with the passage of time and the popularization of pasta around the world, many other sauce recipes have been created, and many innovations of sauces that combine with Fettuccine have emerged.
But one thing that has never changed and will never change are the wines that harmonize with each type of sauce. After all, eating a portion of pasta without the correct wine as a side dish is almost a crime.
We will see below some options of sauces that you can choose to accompany your fettuccine noodles and the ideal wines for each of them, but of course, you can innovate and test other combinations of sauce in addition to those that will be presented.
Fettuccine with tomato sauce
The Pomodoro sauce is nothing more than the tomato sauce made from well-ripe tomatoes, onions and olive oil. Because it is a very acidic sauce, it is excellent if combined with a wine that breaks this acidity a little.
In addition, it is essential to remember that tomato is a fruit, so the perfect harmonization is with half-bodied wines with fruity aromas, such as a traditional Chianti, for example.
Fettuccine with white sauce
White sauces are usually creamier and fatter, such as the well-known Alfredo sauce or bechamel sauce. For example, they ask for a wine that balances all this, so the most indicated wines are the more Woody white wines, such as those made with chardonnay grapes.
Fettuccine with Bolognese sauce
As it was commonly served when the cut appeared, Fettuccine served with Bolognese sauce, which deserves a wine that is the height of this classic tomato-based sauce with ground beef.
The meat brings a touch of fat and more juiciness to the dish, so the idea is to harmonize with concentrated red wine, thus, nothing better than a good Merlot wine.
Fettuccine with mushroom sauce
Fettuccine with mushroom sauce is a real find of gastronomy, and if you have never tried it, you should try it.
Mushrooms, especially funghi secci, bring a more earthy and smoky aroma to the dish, and nothing better to harmonize with all this flavor, a red wine full of fragrances, such as a Pinot Noir or a drier sparkling wine, such as a Sur Lie.
You can also meet and enjoy these delicious varieties at American Pasta.
