|
August 6, 2026 
|
|
|
Good morning! Today we have for you:
 |
| Elaine Kaufman’s fettuccine Alfredo, adapted by Alex Witchel. Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. |
Fettuccine Alfredo forever
I know, I know — fettuccine Alfredo, a famously rich pasta dish, in the summer? Who am I, Michael Scott preparing for Michael Scott’s Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Pro-Am Fun Run Race For the Cure? But hear me out:
- This dish is fast. Fifteen minutes fast. The butter-garlic-cream sauce, enriched with an egg yolk, comes together in the time it takes to boil the water. Once the pasta’s cooked and drained, all you need to do is toss it with that silky mixture and dinner’s done.
- Maybe you have tired, hungry, fussy eaters to feed? Fettuccine Alfredo is essentially mac and cheese, and it’s a scientific fact that nobody doesn’t like mac and cheese.
- This dish could anchor a really fun dinner with friends. You make the pasta, while another friend takes responsibility for a cold, crunchy salad with a tangy red wine vinaigrette. Someone else is in charge of making or procuring breadsticks, the softer the better. If this setup sounds like the Olive Garden birthday dinner I requested for most of my youth — and, to be clear, would still very much enjoy — that’s because it is.
|
(By the way, per the recipe’s introduction, this fettuccine Alfredo recipe is called Elaine’s fettuccine Alfredo because it came to The Times in a 2004 article about Elaine Kaufman, the founder and proprietress of the famed New York restaurant and celebrity hot spot that bore her name and where this dish was served. It might not be the most traditional version out there, but as the five stars and rave reviews suggest, our readers don’t seem to mind.)
Featured Recipe
View Recipe →
|
When you’re here, you’re family (because you’re cooking in your home) |
|
|
|
|
|
Back to our classically summer scheduled programming
Pressure cooker chipotle-honey chicken tacos: The other night I used my pressure cooker to make toor dal; it was hot, and I didn’t feel like tending to a boiling pot of yellow split peas. As I lifted the lid on my perfectly velvety, completely broken-down dal, I wondered why I didn’t use my pressure cooker more often, in the summer or otherwise. So I’m hauling it back out to make this five-star Sarah DiGregorio New York Times Cooking classic. Perhaps you’d like to join me? (You can find a slow-cooker version of this recipe here.)
Tomato-lentil salad with spicy tahini: Why, yes, I did write about this protein-packed and fiber-full Ali Slagle recipe in a recent Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter. I still need to make it — the tomatoes I had went into a different dish, and I need to re-up — so I’m leaving it here for myself as a reminder. Not a fan of spicy? Borrow the balsamic tahini sauce from this other Ali dish.
Corn and jalapeño egg bites: Corn and jalapeño just might give tomatoes and basil a run for their money as the best summer partners. (See: this jalapeño-corn dip or this sheet-pan chicken with corn and jalapeños.) Here, Ali puts them together with scallions and feta for her riff on Naz Deravian’s cottage cheese egg bites. A delicious meeting of the breakfast minds.
For a limited time, you can enjoy free access to the recipes in this newsletter in our app. Download it on your iOS or Android device and create a free account to get started.
And before you go
To end where we started — with Italian American classics — I’ll leave you with Eric Kim’s eggplant Parmesan. For whatever reason, I love an eggplant Parm more than a chicken Parm, and I especially love that Eric’s version calls for baking the panko-crusted eggplant planks in the oven instead of frying them. Leftovers are fantastic smushed into a hero roll for a sandwich, a trick I learned from the Frankies Spuntino cookbook.
Thanks for reading!
|
|
 | Sign up for the Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter. Fresh dinner ideas for busy people who want something great to eat, with NYT Cooking recipes sent to you weekly. Get it in your inbox. |
|
|
|
 | Sign up for The Veggie newsletter. Tanya Sichynsky shares the most delicious vegetarian recipes for weeknight cooking, packed lunches and dinner parties. Get it in your inbox. |
|
|
