Alfredo

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A type of creamy pasta sauce made primarily from butter, heavy cream, and cheese, commonly used in Italian cuisine
2. A decadent sauce known for its rich texture and flavor, often paired with fettuccine or other pasta varieties
3. An indulgent culinary preparation that enhances dishes with its smooth, buttery, and cheesy characteristics

Etymology: Alfredo is the name of a restaurant founder, not a dish invented by a committee. In Rome, Alfredo di Lelio ran a trattoria called Alfredo alla Scrofa, and the buttery pasta he served there with fettuccine and Parmesan became known as fettuccine Alfredo, so the dish's name is literally a man's first name attached to his kitchen. The sauce is a simple emulsion of butter and cheese, and the word has since detached from the restaurant entirely, now standing alone as a generic label for any rich, cheese-and-cream sauce, usually in the American sense. The name itself is an old one. "Alfredo" is an Italian form of "Alfred," an English name of Old English origin, so the restaurant founder's name and the English royal name are doublets, two forms of the same word that came into use by different routes.