Fettuccine Alfredo is a classic pasta dish featuring flat, long noodles coated with a rich cream sauce. A restaurateur in Rome, Alfredo di Lello, is credited with creating the dish back in the 1920s. As pasta dishes go, fettuccine Alfredo is among the most caloric and fatty you can order or make.
Homemade
A homemade version of fettuccine Alfredo, made with 1 lb. of pasta, 6 tbsp. of butter, 1 tbsp. of minced shallot, 1 cup of heavy cream, 1 cup of grated Parmesan cheese, ½ tsp. of salt and generous amounts of cracked black pepper, serves about four people. It provides 570 calories per serving with 36 g of fat, 17 g of which are saturated. The recipe offers 82 mg of cholesterol per serving and 694 mg of sodium. You also get 44 g of carbohydrates, with only 2 g of fiber, and 18 g of protein. If you use enriched fettuccine, the recipe offers 137 micrograms of folate and 2.1 mg of iron. The cream, butter and cheese does make the pasta dish a source of bone-building calcium, with 315 mg, and phosphorus, with 312 mg.
Restaurant Versions
Restaurant versions of fettuccine Alfredo are even higher in calories and fat. A single entrée of fettuccine Alfredo can serve up between 770 and 1,220 calories. Some versions contain as much as 75 g of fat, with 47 g saturated. These restaurant entrees contain large amounts of carbohydrates, with 63 to 99 g per serving. Sodium content on restaurant fettuccine Alfredo is also high, with 1,180 to 1,350 mg per order.
Concerns
Fettuccine Alfredo is high in saturated fat, which the American Heart Association warns may increase your risk of developing heart disease. You should aim to keep saturated fat to less than 7 percent of daily calories. For a typical 2,000- to 2,500-calorie diet, this is just 15 to 19 g daily. The sodium content of fettuccine Alfredo is also a concern. Limiting your sodium intake to just 1,500 calories per day is recommended by the Institute of Medicine -- even the homemade version provides nearly half of these needs, while the restaurant versions come close to providing 100 percent of your limit. Fettuccine Alfredo is also traditionally made with white pasta, which is low in fiber and naturally-occurring nutrients. The USDA recommends consuming a minimum of half of your grain servings daily from whole grains to support digestive health and low cholesterol.
Alternatives
Instead of ordering fettuccine Alfredo, opt for pasta with tomato sauce sans cheese and cream. At home, you could make the fettuccine Alfredo healthier by using whole-wheat pasta. To reduce the fat-content of the sauce, make a sauce with butter, flour and low-fat milk -- to replicate the heft of the cream. You could also add low-fat cream cheese or pureed cottage cheese to bring creaminess to the dish.
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