00:01Okay, this is Chewbacca.
00:03I'm Samin.
00:04You may have seen my Netflix show,
00:06Chewbacca and Samin.
00:07No.
00:09I'm Samin Nosrat of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat on Netflix.
00:13Today, I'm gonna make Fettuccine Alfredo.
00:15Now, it looks like this kitchen's super nice,
00:19but something's going on.
00:20I'm Jess. Welcome to my kitchen.
00:23I know it looks really beautiful
00:24and I really love cooking in here,
00:25but there are a few things that make it less than ideal.
00:27Our gas is off, so the stove isn't working.
00:32I also used to have a rolling pin,
00:34but an x-ray might stall it.
00:36Should I ask why?
00:36All right, good luck. Have fun.
00:44All right.
00:45My challenge is really gonna be to make the pasta by hand
00:49and to make the sauce and get the pasta cooked.
00:52It's really cooking without a stove.
00:54That's freaking me out.
00:55I guess I'm cooking with a microwave today.
00:58Which I've never really done before, so that'll be fun.
01:01Senior week.
01:02I'm gonna use that.
01:04Yes.
01:05Cheez-Its.
01:05Oh, my apron.
01:07Awesome.
01:07This is kind of fun, guys.
01:09I'm pretty excited.
01:10So, I know I can make pasta, flour and eggs.
01:13That one, I'm good.
01:14My ratio for making pasta, it's hard to forget.
01:18It's one cup of flour, one egg, one egg yolk.
01:19This is the thing you've seen a million times in every, like, Italian old-timey video.
01:24You make a little well.
01:25I just crack into the well and egg yolks.
01:29And the idea is I'm breaking up the egg whites, breaking up the egg yolks.
01:33As I'm doing that, flour is starting to incorporate in.
01:36Flour is slow to absorb liquid.
01:38If you go slowly and work it in slowly, it gives the flour time to absorb the eggs and turn
01:43into dough.
01:44Pasta's never the same twice, so you really have to use your senses.
01:48When I'm rolling by hand, it's better to have it on the little bit of a wet side.
01:52Oh, that was a whole white.
01:54So gross, guys.
01:55You know when you open a Play-Doh, it's really soft and, like, it just came out of that extrusion
02:00machine?
02:00That's what you want is, like, a brand new Play-Doh.
02:03And let it rest for, I don't know, ten minutes.
02:05At home, I have a little hand cranky guy that I clipped to the counter.
02:08We don't have that.
02:09The next choice down is a rolling pin.
02:11We don't have that.
02:12So I'm just gonna use this wine bottle.
02:15I've definitely been, like, in a rental home with no rolling pin.
02:20So this is not totally unfamiliar.
02:22Also, I didn't make this up.
02:23It's a classic.
02:24Like, many an Italian grandma have done this.
02:27I'm more nervous about the sauce.
02:30I'm pretty nervous about the sauce, guys.
02:32I'm just gonna cover it with a damp towel and let it sit for a few minutes before I get
02:36to the next step.
02:39Oh, it's already so much floppier and softer.
02:42Floppy is good.
02:43When I work on a machine, I like to roll the pasta out into one long strip.
02:48But I think by hand, I'm really just gonna sort of roll, roll, roll, always from the center out and
02:54then turn it.
02:55All right, let's see if I'm gonna be able to do this.
03:01I had to cut that because I wanna go thinner now.
03:04My mentor, Benedetta, taught me to do this.
03:07I'm using my hands to pull outward as I roll.
03:11All right, that's good.
03:13Basically translucent, at least in parts.
03:15I'm gonna call that good enough.
03:16I like to use a lot of flour in this step.
03:18This is gonna be Lady and the Tramp style.
03:19They're really long.
03:22I'll just cut it into noodles and shake off the excess flour.
03:26All right, now we have to go into our new terrible territory.
03:29To make the sauce, first I'm gonna bloom the garlic.
03:32So I'm gonna chop it up super duper finely and soften some butter in the microwave.
03:37I'm gonna have to do a lot of starting and stopping and beeping buttons.
03:40Beep, beep, beep.
03:41Boop, boop, boop.
03:42Oh God.
03:43Mmm.
03:45I think it can keep going.
03:46I just want that very raw smell to be gone.
03:51Your food is ready.
03:53Okay.
03:55It smells good.
03:56Let's taste it.
03:58Check.
03:58Okay.
03:59I'm Googling how to grate Parmesan without a grater.
04:02Oh, you can rub two pieces together?
04:10Something's happening.
04:11Yeah, it makes little weird clumps of cheese, but it seems disrespectful.
04:15So I'd rather do it like this.
04:17I really don't think you can use too much Parmesan, especially an Alfredo.
04:20I'd rather have more than less.
04:22Now, what I'm afraid of, the cream.
04:25I want to use a nice wide bowl.
04:27When you heat liquids in the microwave, there's like crazy chemicals reactions happening underneath
04:32what appears to be a perfectly still surface.
04:36It's basically boiling or sometimes I think even hotter than boiling underneath.
04:40I think the way to prevent that whole surface tension insanity to encourage simmering is
04:45to stop it pretty often and like break the surface tension to let heat out.
04:49We're just going to be doing this for like 30 minutes ago.
04:52Oh, something's happening.
04:54I just saw a bubble and steam.
04:55Oh yeah.
04:56Oh God.
04:56Oh God.
04:58All right.
04:58It's fully simmering.
05:00Look, how crazy is that when you put the spoon and break the surface tension?
05:05It's like a crazy science experiment.
05:06I can't believe it worked.
05:08I want to make a little bit coarser pepper than this.
05:11Anything with a flat bottom that's nice and heavy, you can just sort of smear it.
05:14Smells good.
05:15I can make this into something that tastes pretty good.
05:18I mean, it's not going to taste bad.
05:19It's cheese and cream.
05:20Add our garlic and black pepper.
05:22You know what I haven't added any of?
05:23Salt.
05:24I think fettuccine Alfredo tastes like the most luxurious, elegant macaroni and cheese you've ever had.
05:30I think people think it's kind of a trashy thing maybe, but that's a mistake.
05:34It's good.
05:35More cheese.
05:36I mean, I feel like you could just eat this by the spoonful.
05:38It would be so good.
05:39Let me get the water going because that's going to take a minute.
05:45What's up?
05:46Now I have to take it out, salt it, and put it back.
05:48Like salty as the sea is what I always say.
05:50Oh man, I was so dumb.
05:52I could have used the water boiler to boil the water.
05:55Ugh!
05:56I'm going in.
05:57Oh God, please.
05:58Oh God!
05:59So it almost boiled.
06:00It didn't boil over.
06:01It's not that much more water than pasta, which freaks me out.
06:04I'm like, it's going to cook into a whole clump at the bottom of everything.
06:07So that was in there for maybe two and a half minutes.
06:09That's what you want your pasta to be like, you know?
06:11Flippity flappity.
06:12Now I have two important things.
06:14I have the salty pasta water and the nice like creamy sauce.
06:23You want that creamy, yummy sound?
06:25Honestly, I'm really pleasantly surprised that I got all the steps done.
06:28I bloomed the garlic.
06:29I reduced the cream.
06:30I made the whole sauce.
06:32I cooked the pasta.
06:33I was able to do it and it wasn't disastrous.
06:36It didn't separate.
06:37It didn't turn into like an oily mess.
06:39It didn't sizzle and fizzle and like sputter in there.
06:42I didn't make a huge overflow like lava bomb in the microwave.
06:45I'm not leaving this place totally destroyed.
06:47Pretty proud.
06:48The only thing I do differently next time is use a stove.
06:53The kitchen really needs a stove.
06:54And honestly, I think the whole thing was a scam.
06:57I bet you it's working.
06:59There we go.
07:00Microwave Mac.
07:05Now, can you give us some privacy so Chewy and I can eat our lunch?
07:10Ready?
07:10Whoa.
07:12Mwah.
07:13Thank you so much.
