How To Add Bold Cajun Flair To Fettuccine Alfredo

After glorious weeks at an Umbrian culinary school, I thought I knew everything about making Italian pasta. From creating, kneading, and hand-cutting pasta dough into long, thin strips, then choosing the perfect fresh-pressed olive oils for crafting light, creamy, and dreamy pasta masterpieces, I could imagine folding almost anything into deliziosa homemade pasta dishes. That was before a much later aha! moment involving spicy Cajun seasoning, Southern-style andouille sausage, shrimp, and the seemingly incongruous presence of fresh, flat, strips of fettuccine. 

In a pasta creation by Tasting Table recipe developer Michelle McGlinn, Italy meets the former French territory of what's now Louisiana. In the distinct nature of Cajun cuisine, which reigns in New Orleans and dozens of food-centric state parishes, this creamy Cajun shrimp pasta dish adds a unique flair to a basic fettuccine Alfredo. And it does so in marvelously simple and spicy ways. 

You could totally reinvent fettuccine Alfredo with Cajun characteristics, but it's not necessary to go all in. Hold on to things you love about this cozy Italian dish, while also punching it up with classic Cajun seasoning. Purchase a premixed version, or make your own Cajun spice mix with earthy, punchy, and pungent spices. The exact blend comes down to personal taste, but you'll generally be combining ingredients such as dried paprika, cayenne, garlic powder, black pepper, and onion powder. Optional additions range from thyme to oregano, mustard powder, cumin, basil, rosemary, or wherever your senses roam.  

While Cajun spices provide a direct path for jazzing up fettuccine Alfredo, they're not the only option. A bit less bold yet still effective approach is to add customary ingredients such as the all-important "holy trinity" of Cajun cooking — a sacred mirepoix of finely chopped green bell peppers, onions, and celery. Once the three compatriots get sautéed in oil until browned and lightly caramelized, build the Alfredo sauce into the same pan, sprinkle in the spicy Cajun seasoning, and proceed with your preferred fettuccine-making process.

If you're following Michelle McGlinn's Tasting Table recipe for creamy Cajun shrimp pasta, you'll get a few extra surprises, including deglazing the pan with white wine. The sauce may also be richer and creamier than typical Alfredo, thanks to the infusion of cream cheese and whipping cream. The spices and tomato base, plus pan-fried shrimp and sliced andouille, tip this creamy pasta toward traditional Cajun or Creole jambalaya territory. 

Louisiana turns on its own culinary axis but still belongs to the larger Southern style of cooking. In that vein, the creamy Cajun incarnation of fettuccine Alfredo appears in Tasting Table's roundup of the 20 best sweet and savory Southern recipes. It joins other Louisiana favorites such as etouffee, shrimp and okra gumbo, and wild rice and sweet potato jambalaya.