CREAMY Tiktok Baked Mushroom Fettuccine Alfredo!

Dear Reader, I'm so excited to share this Baked Mushroom Fettuccine Alfredo, a riff on the TikTok baked feta pasta. This idea was suggested to me by a Dear Reader Allison P. after I posted my upgrade to the original Uunifetapasta by Jenni Häyrinen. This makes the creamiest, dreamiest mushroom fettuccine Alfredo sauce with very little effort! This is a pushy recipe Dear Reader!

Alfredo sauce is a buttery and cheesy creamy sauce. It got its name from Alfredo di Lelio who featured the dish at his restaurant called "Alfredo alla Scrofa" in Rome, Italy where they served it tableside. While the use of butter and cheese with pasta dates back to the 15th century it was Alfredo di Lelio who popularised it. Alfredo is a very popular sauce in America.

Alfredo sauce uses butter and young (not aged) parmesan cheese as a base, nowadays often fortified by the use of cream. It is delicious and one of those sauces that everyone (ok bar the lactose intolerant) seems to love and it is thick and creamy so the perfect comfort food. Fettucine is most often served with Alfredo sauce. While Alfredo is a simple sauce, this version is very hands off when you place everything in the oven to bake.

This baked mushroom alfredo pasta took a few goes. I first tried this pasta with feta and feta had a tanginess that I didn't necessarily want for an Alfredo sauce. I thought back to Alfredo's origins (di Lelio's recipe uses 250g/8ozs. of butter) and we all know that cream makes both cream cheese and butter so I realised the best cheese for this is cream cheese which is basically made out of cream with a touch of acidity to set it.

I used regular white mushrooms as these were what came in my vege box and these were absolutely delicious. Feel free to mix it up using different mushrooms. And just a warning: this smells very enticing while it is baking! I really do hope that you'll make it. I did not expect to love it as much as I did and kept sneaking bites of it while it was cooling. This pasta is best served straight away because the sauce does absorb into the pasta over time but even the next day it was tasty heated up.

Can I add chicken? You sure can! It would be delicious with chicken. I used chicken tenderloins in one of my versions and counted on 2 tenderloins per person, cut into bite sized pieces.

While this recipe is simplicity itself, I was in a rather tricky situation recently. I was working doing some photography work (I just started a photography studio so you can hire me to for photographic and recipe development work - follow me here!).

It was a hot day and I was wearing a t-shirt and fitness gear as I was busy in a food truck at a brewery and it was a sweltering hot day. The t-shirt that I wanted to wear was in the wash so I grabbed the nearest t-shirt out of the drawer. It was a gift from Ivy. It says, "Dog Mum AF."

There were two kids in line at the food truck and there was this adorable little girl who was quite fascinated by the whole process of photography and was watching me take photos and videos.

"I like your camera," she said smiling. She was a cute and confident thing and I knew she would grow up to be a boss.

Then she looked at my t-shirt, "Dog...mom...AF" she said in her tiny pipsqueak voice pronouncing AF as "aff". "What is that?"

"Errrrr," I said panicking. I don't spend a lot of time with kids so I don't have any clever answers for these sorts of tricky questions. I looked down at my camera and blurted out, "AF means auto focus, like on a camera!". To my immense relief that seemed to satisfy her curiosity and I made my escape before more questions were asked like how babies are made and is there a god?

So tell me Dear Reader, what would you have answered her? And do you like fettuccine Alfredo?

Tiktok Baked Mushroom Fettuccine Alfredo

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 35 minutes

Serves: 2-3 people

• 250g/8.8ozs cream cheese block
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed (but not chopped or diced)
• 250g/8.8ozs. mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 cup/125ml/4ozs. cream
• 1/4 cup/60ml/2flozs white or rosé wine
• 50g/1.7ozs butter
• 2 sprigs thyme
• 250g/8.8ozs. fettucine pasta (or pasta of your choice)
• 1 cup/30g/1oz. baby spinach leaves
• Grated parmesan cheese to serve
• Salt and black pepper
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley

Step 1 - Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Place the cream cheese block on a baking dish and place the onion, garlic, mushrooms, cream and wine around it. Place the butter in the centre on top of the cream cheese and top with thyme and bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes the onions will not be brown but will be cooked soft.

Step 2 - While the sauce is baking, cook the pasta when the mushrooms have about 15 minutes to go. Put a large pot of water onto the boil and add salt. Cook the pasta for 7-8 minutes until al dente and then drain well under cold running water.

Step 3 - When the sauce is done take a fork and mash the cream cheese and add the baby spinach and stir everything together. Add the drained pasta along with salt, pepper and some parmesan cheese. Sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately. Even standing at the sink with a fork, it's that good.