The Roman Restaurant Where You Can Eat The World's First Fettuccine Alfredo

Italy is the homeland of pizza, gelato, and iconic pasta dishes. Fettuccine alfredo is undoubtedly one of the most famous, creamy, and comforting spins on pasta, and it's especially beloved in the United States. The dish was born in Rome at the beginning of the 20th century and is still served in the original recipe at the very same restaurant where it was first put on the menu: Alfredo alla Scrofa.

The birth of alfredo pasta began with the birth of a son. Alfredo and Ines Di Lelio have just welcomed their first son in 1908. Ines was feeling poorly after the birth, so Alfredo made her fettuccine pasta with loads of butter and parmesan. Eating pasta in this way is fairly common in Italy when someone is feeling sick, and the dish is known as "pasta bianco" — the white pasta. But Alfredo went a step further and prepared it with fettuccine noodles, triple the amount of butter, and a creaming technique called mantecare. Just like that, fettuccine alfredo was born. Ines loved the dish, so Alfredo (after whom the dish is named) put it on the menu of his restaurant, originally called Ristorante Alfredo, when it opened in 1914.

Alfredo Di Lelio's restaurant was immensely successful and popular, even among the world's biggest celebrities of the time. In 1920, American actors Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford ate at the restaurant while on their honeymoon. They were so impressed by the dish that they crowned Di Lelio as the king of noodles and gifted him golden cutlery. Their enthusiasm for the dish quickly made fettuccine alfredo popular in the United States, especially once Hollywood's Musso and Frank restaurant introduced it to a wider American public. Since then, a number of celebrities have traveled to Italy and stopped at Alfredo alla Scrofa to sample the original fettuccine alfredo, including Audrey Hepburn, Frank Sinatra, and Jimi Hendrix.

The recipe for this creamy pasta dish has notably evolved throughout the years. Most American recipes include cream and flour, sometimes even cream cheese and milk (like our chicken fettuccine alfredo), resulting in a thicker and slightly heavier dish than the original. And despite the worldwide popularity, you won't find fettuccine alfredo on the menu in Italy — with two exceptions. The first is, of course, Alfredo alla Scrofa. But Alfredo's son actually sold the place in 1946 and opened a new restaurant called Il Vero Alfredo, where authentic fettuccine alfredo is served and is still run by the Di Lelio family to this day.