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Wine Pairing Options with Fettuccine Alfredo

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A most beloved pasta dish, Fettuccine Alfredo, is lovely when paired with a wide variety of wines, from California chardonnays to red wine made right in Sicily.

When it comes to a fettuccine alfredo wine pairing, this article will list the ultimate guide to all of the top-tier choices to toast to (and with) during your next dinner party.

Knowing the simple yet savory taste of creamy alfredo, there are plenty of Italian pasta wine pairing options worth trying that truly bring out the deep, rich flavors of each dish.

Aside from wine pairing options with creamy fettuccine alfredo, there are multitudes of pasta dishes to enjoy with a glass of wine to taste-test until you’ve found your perfect match.

Recommended Wine Pairing

There’s loads of Italian-American classic meals, like spaghetti and meatballs or chicken alfredo, that can be spruced up when paired with the right wine.

While even the most refined food critics can’t argue that everything boils down to personal preference, enough palates have put in the work tasting different wines to at least give you a good head start to finding your idea of the perfect pairing to your favorite pasta.

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The Best Fettuccine Alfredo Wine Pairing

To help bring out the exquisite taste in your Italian food, it’s always a grand experience pairing it with the perfect wine.

As mentioned earlier, the “perfect pairing” is subjective, and a person’s favorite wine might pair better in their eyes (or taste buds) than the most recommended pairing.

Playing with your individual palate is the only way to know for sure what you’ll believe to be the best wine to have opposite your creamy pasta dishes.

However, everyone has to have a starting point to go off of for this type of thing, and hearing what others have found to be a real crowd pleaser can help us make informed decisions for ourselves about what wines may work for what Italian dish.

This is especially true if this is your first time trying to coordinate these meals with a complimenting alcoholic beverage when there’s hundreds to choose from and you know very little about any of them.

No single bottle of wine exists for a given pasta dish, and naturally, fettuccine alfredo is no exception. Below, let’s browse the most popular wines to offer with a plate of fettuccine alfredo:

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Chardonnay

Plan on adding grilled or cooked chicken to your fettuccine alfredo? The buttery flavor from the chicken will really come out when it is paired with Chardonnay, a white wine made from green-skinned grapes, although Chardonnay can change in taste depending on where it was grown.

I like to use a bottle from California’s Russian River Valley or Australia’s Margaret River region as it has less of an oaky Chardonnay taste and instead is buttery, which mixes well with the buttery flavor of some white sauces, like an alfredo sauce.

This great choice for wine pairs well with fettuccine alfredo and is best when served chilled, either by refrigeration for two hours or in an ice bath for about 45 minutes prior to serving.

By adding a creamy white wine like Chardonnay to the meal, the complex flavors inside pesto pastas really are given a place to shine.

Highly Rated Vintage Chardonnay Wines

Lovers of cheese have found that trying the new pairing of cheesy ravioli and creamy Chardonnay made for a mouthwatering dining experience, all without any heartburn afterwards due to the fact that

Chardonnay is not amongst one of the most highly acidic wines. Pastas using ricotta cheese stand out when paired with this fresh white wine.

My favorite Chardonnay wine: Chateau Ste. Michelle Columbia Valley

Related Post: The Best Heavy Cream Substitutes for Pasta

Pinot Noir

One red wine great for pasta pairings, much like with fettuccine alfredo, is Pinot noir, a light red wine created from Pinot noir grapes that grow in the cool climates of the Burgundy region of France.

Once translated, the name Pinot is the French word for pine, and noir means black, named after the dark coloration of the grape’s skin.

The grapes used for Pinot noir may contain high acidity levels depending on if the stems were removed or not, and Californian Pinot noir, which is sold out of California, has a much higher alcohol content than that of what comes out of Europe.

Nonetheless, Pinot noir’s subtle red fruit flavors bring out the best of every bite in a variety of dishes, such as chicken, tuna, salmon, veal, duck, and plenty of others.

Mushroom pasta also sits well when paired with the light Pinot noir, as well as dishes with a strong flavor of garlic and olive oil.

Someone eating vegan lasagna, baked ziti, shrimp scampi, or a red clam sauce seafood pasta would benefit from the enhancements they’d feel at their taste buds after sipping a bright acidity glass of Pinot noir too.

Pinot Grigio

A famous, dry white wine by the name of Pinot Grigio, or Pinot gris, comes from a gray and blue colored grape and was founded in Burgundy, despite many mistaking Pinot Grigio to be a member of the Italian whites.

After having been founded in France, Pinot gris began catching people’s attention in Switzerland in the 1300s, and from there, it took off in northern Italy where the name Pinot Grigio later caught on.

The wine did as well, quickly becoming the most popular crisp white wine in all of Italy, only to soon after become the United States’ most imported of the dry white wines.

Unsurprisingly, Pinot gris is a good idea as a fettuccine alfredo wine pairing because it’s bursting with flavors of lemon, lime, honeysuckle, and green apple; the citrus blasts in between bites of creamy sauces, much like those in a meal such as shrimp alfredo, for example, work as an excellent palate cleanser.

If any creamy pasta sauces contain goat cheese, that is a known ingredient to pair really nicely with Pinot Grigio.

Other Italian Wines To Pair With Food

Overall, it seems like there’s always something more to learn when it comes to wine pairing, but with hope, it’s mostly a tasteful experience of trial and error as you figure things out.

We’ve already discussed some of the best matches that come to mind when thinking about the most popular types of bottles on the store shelves, but plenty of other varieties of wines exist also and are just waiting for you and your taste buds to go explore.

Now, I will list some other scrumptious wine pairings for various pastas.

Sparkling Wines

Sparkling wine, or champagne as we know it in the United States, is a wine made from either white grapes or rosé and contains safe amounts of carbon dioxide in it, making it fizzy like soda pop.

You’ll hear it be referenced as sparkling wine because the European Union legally reserves that term for the products only produced in the Champagne region of France.

Carrying about it a sense of sweetness, sparkling wine is often between a range of tasting like dry rosé to “doux” varieties, which means soft in French.

Related Post: Macaroni and Cheese Recipe with Breadcrumbs

Italian Red Wines

As there’s quite the long list of Italian wine options to partner up with your main course, over 500 varieties to be exact, finding the perfect Italian reds can be a bit of a challenge, even for experienced wine tasters.

For example, a red wine like Chianti Classico brings out red sauces like spaghetti bolognese and red pesto. Having a glass of Chianti with my favorite pasta dish topped with sprinkled parmesan cheese is such a bold tasting delight!

White Wines

If you’re needing a touch of sweetness to your pasta dish, pink moscato is a fairly inexpensive white wine that fills your palate with hints of cherry, raspberry, mandarin orange, raspberry, pomegranate, and jasmine.

Seldomly oaked and always aromatic is the grape variety known as Riesling, a white grape from the Rhine region of Germany.

Sip a dry Riesling wine with pork chops, fettuccine alfredo, grilled scallops, chicken stir fry, hearty salads, and more unbelievable pairings for the wine with apple, peach, apricot, and pear profiles.

Italian whites like Ribolla Gialla are heavenly when eaten next to alfredo and many other pasta dishes as it’s primary flavors are baked apples, honey, tangerine, citrus, beeswax, and thyme.

Originating in the Friuli Collio/Goriska Brda region in Slovenia, the white wine grapes were previously thought by sommeliers to have originated in Greece.

Furthermore, this light bodied wine has the capability of developing nutty flavors over time as it ages.

Straight from the Loire Valley of France comes the white wine grape known as Chenin Blanc. Of floral, honey, and apple scent, this wine has high acidity levels and, therefore, it may be incredibly versatile in the kitchen.

Real fruity and fresh, Chenin Blanc goes great with creamy chicken casseroles, fish, veggies, salads, and more; what sort of dishes you’ll want paired with Chenin Blanc will greatly depend on the kind of version it is as their flavors can range from juicy fruit to oaky.

Other Wine Pairings For Pastas

As much as I love fettuccine alfredo and love talking about it, it’s not the only pasta dish in the world and there are numerous other dishes out there to start cooking.

Of course, what would these pasta dishes be without being paired with delectable wines of your choice? Deep dive into a couple of the leading wine varieties being sold today.

Cabernet Sauvignon

Landing as the most widely planted wine grape, with some 341,000 hectares of vines around the world, is Cabernet Sauvignon, another red wine that is a good choice to pair with foods high in fats.

This vast range of wine varietals across regions can taste from minty to “jammy” and contain notes of black cherry to green bell pepper, all dependent on the grape’s climate and its’ age.

Additionally, DNA evidence concluded Cabernet Sauvignon to be the offspring of Cabernet franc and Sauvignon blanc, a crossing that occurred in the 17th century by chance.

Knowing the weight, or the Cabernet Sauvignon’s alcohol level and body, is what will be the factor in deciding which dishes would serve best alongside the bottle of wine; it’s crucial that the type of wine matches closely to the heaviness of the food.

Commonly, this kind of wine is enjoyed with red meat, like lamb or steak.

Rosso di Montalcino

Dry, fruity, red wines like Rosso di Montalcino are as delectable as they are affordable compared to their counterparts. Being the “little brother” of Brunello di Montalcino, the grapes for this wine grow near Montalcino in Tuscany.

Young Rosso di Montalcino contains intense flavors of red and black cherries, plus other wild berries. Aging brings out the smells of deep cherry, star anise, plum, and spice.

For the most part, steaks pair well with this dry red wine, as do several cheeses like parmigiano, pecorino, and asiago.

Picking what wine to pair with your pasta will depend firstly on what type of sauce is used and then on any main proteins in the dish. Take for example a tomato sauce pasta and how it would be in your best interest to pair that dish with a medium-bodied red wine.

With luck, fettuccine alfredo wine pairing is made easy with how influential the richness of the dish truly is.

My childhood years were spent enjoying warm chicken alfredo pasta on cold, rainy days, so therefore, I am admittedly biased when I say that alfredo is one of my favorite sauces.

Try all of these wine pairings and our quick fettuccine alfredo recipe for the next time you’re planning to crank out a home cooked meal.

Easy Fettuccine Alfredo Recipe

Without a doubt, this is the most fantastic fettuccine alfredo recipe to cook and serve your family on a busy week night, your friends on a weekend dinner get together at your house, or just for you to have solo.

Always made from fresh, inexpensive ingredients, it’s sure to hit the spot, and there’s tons of room for your favorite additions if noodles and sauce aren’t going to cut it.

Hardly any prep is involved and, don’t worry, you won’t have many dishes to wash at the end either.

Get a meal to the table fast by following the easy instructions compiled below:

For this recipe, you’ll need a whole pound of fettuccine noodles, 2 cups of heavy cream, a stick of unsalted butter, one peeled clove of garlic, ¾ cup of shredded parmesan cheese (plus some extra for serving), about one teaspoon of nutmeg, ¼ cup of chopped parsley, and sea salt and black pepper to taste.

  1. Begin cooking your fettuccine noodles as directed on their package in a large pot over high heat. Start Step 2 before you take the noodles out of the water, but you’re going to want to remove them when the noodles are still undercooked and get out a small bowl to save some of the water you cooked the noodles in.
  1. Pour the heavy cream into a sauté pan and add the whole garlic cloves. Heat over a medium setting. You don’t have to add the garlic if you’d prefer to leave it out!
  1. Whisk the stick of the butter into the mixture until it’s become well blended and completely melted. Remove the garlic and throw it into a compost bin. Add the nutmeg, parmesan cheese, sea salt, and pepper, tasting until you’re content with it.
  1. Reserve a small portion of the pasta water to add in to the sauce later if you want to loosen it. Drain the fettuccine, then add it to the pan, gently stirring to combine and coat the noodles. Cook a few minutes longer to finish the noodles in the sauce; this way, the creamy sauce will stick to the noodles.
  1. Lastly, you can add your desired amount of the reserved pasta liquid to the fettuccine alfredo until it’s the consistency you’re wanting. Top with your remaining parmesan cheese and the chopped parsley for garnish, then serve!

Other rich add-ins to make this dish your own are cooked bacon, cooked chicken, shrimp, or steamed vegetables.

Fettuccine Alfredo Recipe

This creamy, delicious Italian favorite can also be made vegan and gluten-free.
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Italian
Keyword: gluten-free fettuccine alfredo, Italian food, pasta, vegan fettuccine alfredo
Servings: 4 people
Calories: 579kcal
Author: Chloe

Ingredients

  • 1 lb Fettuccine pasta - use gluten-free pasta to make this gluten-free
  • 3 tbsp butter - use vegan butter to make this vegan
  • 1 clove garlic - minced
  • 2 cups Ripple milk - or heavy cream of your choice
  • 2 tbsp Italian parsley
  • 1 ¼ cup parmesan cheese - use vegan alternative for non-dairy cheese
  • ¼ tsp salt

Instructions

  • In a large pot, heat water over high heat until boiling. Add salt to the water. Once boiling, add fettuccine and cook according to package instructions.
  • In a large skillet, heat butter over medium heat. Add minced garlic and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, until fragrant. Stir in Ripple milk or heavy cream.
  • Let Ripple or heavy cream reduce and cook for 5 to 8 minutes. Add half of the parmesan cheese or dairy-free alternative of your choice to the mixture and whisk well until smooth. Keep over low heat until cheese has melted.
  • Toss Alfredo sauce with fettuccine pasta and add ½ cup of the parmesan cheese and toss the pasta.
  • Garnish with the remaining parmesan cheese and Italian parsley.

Nutrition

Calories: 579kcal | Carbohydrates: 83g | Protein: 28g | Fat: 14g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 118mg | Sodium: 763mg | Potassium: 335mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 501IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 427mg | Iron: 3mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Finding a fettuccine alfredo wine pairing should be an enjoyable time for you to explore with your taste buds and relax with good food.

Subsequently, food can taste incredibly better when it is paired with the appropriate variety of wine, but this doesn’t mean that you’ll automatically fall in love with a wine you’ve never liked before simply because you’ve served it with some pork ragu.

Besides, so many of what lovers of wine consider to be classics are actually just the result of a given region’s history, their cuisine, and the wine they drank with it.

Wine was the dominant tableside beverage as it was safer to consume than the local water supply.

 Whether you’re dishing up the world’s best creamy carbonara pasta to have alongside Pinot Grigio or drinking a dry Riesling with lucious breadcrumb topped macaroni and cheese, having the knowledge to make these types of educated decisions for your wine pairing experience is going to give you one solid return in terms of flavor.

Not only that, but think about how much more bang you’ll get for your buck at the grocery store knowing that you’re actively maximizing your taste of the foods you’re purchasing.

I remember going to some of my first wine tastings with friends; it was then that I came to so many realizations about foods that I thought I didn’t like!

Endless pasta recipes exist out there, and getting started with something simple at home is a fun way to begin tasting and testing.

Check out our curated list of our favorite California wines!

Up Next: The Best Spaghetti with Alfredo Sauce Recipe


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11 Comments

  1. 5 stars
    Amazing recipe, thanks for sharing along with the wine paring tips! I’m a pinot girl so I loved the recommendations!

    1. I don’t suggest almond milk because it curdles. I haven’t tried rice milk, but because it is also a thin milk like almond milk, I don’t recommend using it either as it might have the same effect. Ripple is basically just pea milk. It has a thicker consistency to it. I usually add my milk at the end of the cooking process so it doesn’t curdle. You can try this but I can’t guarantee that it won’t curdle with almond milk or rice milk but you can try. I hope this helps.

  2. 5 stars
    So delicious! I used coconut milk instead of the plant-based one you recommended and it came out great, it had a sweet hint to it, but I didn’t mind it. This was a great recipe, I’ll be sure to use this one again soon and try out different variations of other milks to see which one I like best.