Angela left me to my own devices this past week as she was out of town attending a wedding. Some may look at this as a tragedy; I merely look at it as an opportunity to eat things she doesn’t like.
In college, I independently developed something similar to this recipe. It developed as an elaboration of a fettucine alfredo recipe I found in a Betty Crocker cookbook that was owned by my roommate. I no longer make that recipe as I’ve moved on to better and (to my thinking at least) more authentic recipes.
However, there’s a bit of a story to that fettucine alfredo recipe. It was one of the first things I ever cooked from a published recipe. But, more importantly to me at least, was that it was the first thing I ever cooked for Angela.
As documented in the about page, this was an effort to impress here. And apparently it worked.
But that has very little to do with this recipe as Angela doesn’t like Gorgonzola cheese (or really any blue cheese) which is why I made this recipe when she was gone. It’s a rather simple recipe. The most time was taken up in making the pasta.
My pasta making technique has been modified a bit now. I tend to add a little bit of olive oil and salt to the dough. I’m not sure if I can taste a difference or not but it’s been working for me. I also use large eggs now as I’ve started buying the dark yolk eggs from Trader Joe’s. If anything, the dough has been easier to work with with large eggs as opposed to extra large eggs.
The Gorgonzola sauce is quite good if fattening. The flavor of the Gorgonzola definitely ripens as it is allowed to sit at room temperature but the sauce itself is very well balanced. It went well, for me, with a 2005 Palmina Dolcetto.
Fettucine con Salsa di Gorgonzola (Fettucini with Gorgonzola Sauce)
Adapted from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking
1/4 lbs. Gorgonzola, left at room temperature for at least 6 hours
1/3 cup whole milk
3 tbsp butter
salt
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 1/4 lbs. fresh fettuccine (preferably homemade)
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
- In a large saucepan, place the gorgonzola, milk, and butter over low heat. Stir with a wood spoon, breaking up the gorgonzola. Cook for a minute or two or until the butter melts.
- Add the heavy cream and increase the heat to medium-low. Cook until the heavy cream has thickened slightly, about 2 minutes.
- Cook the pasta in boiling salted water until slightly undercooked. Add the pasta to the sauce.
- Cook the sauce for 1 minute more, stirring in the pasta.
- Stir in the parmesan cheese.
- Serve immediately with extra grated parmesan cheese on top.
Serves 4.
two yolks 
I love gorgonzola! It’s fantastic! In general, I love to eat (and cook) the food with the cheese.
If you want to read on my blog (if I don’t wrong you know italian…exactly?) … you can read:
http://innolandpuntoit.wordpress.com/2007/10/08/info-e-consigli-la-pasta-al-gorgonzola/
Bye bye 🙂
innovatel, I like Gorgonzola a lot too. Unfortunately, my wife doesn’t like it.
I’ll try and read what you wrote about it. I speak a little bit of Italian so it will be slow going for me.
In my house only me and my mother love it. My father and m brother hate it. So it’s difficult to do a food with it … sometime I did not have time to cook two food.
Did you ever try gorgonzola over a “hot-bread”? uhh … fantastic.
bye 🙂
What is a hot-bread? Toast? Bruschetta? I think something might have been lost in translation there.
I love Gorgonzola cream sauces they are a perfect blend of salty, tangy, and creamy. Yum!
It was not a translation … it’s my english … it’s not percfet … but I try to speak it 🙂
It’s more or less a toast … but you can use the bread. I don’t know the english word for “forno” or “piastra elettrica” … sorry 😦
innovatel – Your English is better than my Italian. “forno” is oven in English. “piastra elletrica” is probably electric griddle in English.
Is the bread just toasted? Is something else put on it? How is it cooked?
Just saw your photo on foodgawker. This looks delicious. My boyfriend and I both love gorgonzola. A favorite dish of ours (with some local Austin flavor) is linguine with gorgonzola, jalapeno, and grilled chicken. Next time I’ll try the butter, milk, cream approach instead of starting with a bechamel.
How fabulous is this? I can only imagine! Fresh pasta and gorgonzola cheese? I think I’ve died and went to heaven.
@Matt -> Exactly … it’s that 🙂 It’s very simple. Take a bread. cut it in to part (one up and one down) and insert that in the the electric griddle (the two internal part can be see the “down” of the electric griddle)
After some minutes add gorgonzola into the bread and insert for some seconds the bread and gorgonzola into electric griddle.
After … you can eat it … 🙂
do you understand? 🙂
lisa – Your dish sounds interesting but I usually avoid grilled chicken because of its blandness but the japaleno does sound good. I think that cream seems lighter than using a bechamel with pasta. It’s probably something to do with the flour in the bechamel.
innovatel – I think I’ve figured out what you’re talking about. Do you eat it as a sandwich (two slices of bread) or like toast (one slice of bread)? If it’s a sandwich, there’s an American creation called grilled cheese which would be similar (but usually has bad American cheese in it). The electric griddle you’re describing may actually be a toaster. Does it stand upright and do you insert the bread into it vertically? Maybe find a picture of it.
@matt -> i eat in the same mode … i like it … but I think on “sandwich style” 🙂
Gorgonzola sauce on pasta is so good!
This looks amazing! I was proud of myself that I was able to translate this one without the English 🙂 Haha. I just had Gorgonzola pizza today so I’m on a pro-Gorgonzola kick.