Alfredo Sauce Recipe and Penne alla Fiesolana

Make a béchamel sauce by melting a tablespoon of butter and carefully stirring in the flour to keep lumps from forming. Cook until the mixture is a pale brown, then add the milk, a few drops at a time, stirring all the while. Continue cooking over a low flame till the sauce thickens somewhat, and then stir in the cream, heat through, and set aside. Meanwhile, set the pasta to cook in salted water. Shred the prosciutto and lightly sauté it in a large skillet with the remaining butter. Add the béchamel sauce and the peas to the prosciutto and keep the sauce warm. When the pasta is just shy of being cooked, drain it, turn the flame under the sauce to high, and finish cooking the pasta by tossing it in the sauce. Serve with grated cheese to taste.

A Note: If you omit the peas and the prosciutto, you will obtain a smooth creamy sauce that closely resembles an Alfredo sauce, though it's not quite as rich. Making a true Alfredo Sauce is actually easier. You will need:

• 1 pound (450 g) fettuccine or other dried pasta
• 1/2 cup (100 g) unsalted butter
• 1 cup (250 ml) heavy cream
• 1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano
• Salt and pepper to taste
• A hint of freshly grated nutmeg, if you like it

Begin by setting pasta water to boil. Salt it, and add the pasta. While the pasta is cooking, melt the butter over a gentle flame in a large skillet; do not let it froth or brown. When the pasta reaches the al dente stage drain it and turn it into the skillet. Add the cream and the cheese, season to taste, stir gently to coat the strands, and serve.

A wine? Depends upon the pasta. If I were serving the cream sauce over tortellini, I would go with a light, zesty red, even a Lambrusco secco (dry Lambrusco). If I were instead serving it over strands of pasta or short pasta, I would go with a white, perhaps a Vernaccia di San Gimignano.