The Luxurious Steak Upgrade Your Fettuccine Alfredo Deserves

Fettuccine Alfredo is one of the ultimate comfort foods, brimming with a rich creaminess and cheesy, buttery, garlicky goodness. Although chicken and shrimp are more frequently the added proteins of choice, there's a luxurious steak upgrade that your dish really deserves.

Making fettuccine Alfredo with steak instead of chicken adds a touch of elegance to the normally rustic meal. Even better, though, is using the steak drippings as the base for the Alfredo sauce, which is a fantastic way to infuse some really deep flavors into your dish. Of course, it all starts with properly searing the steak, which you're probably doing all wrong. You're aiming for a nice, brown crust on the meat, with lots of drippings and stuck-on caramelized bits left behind in the pan, called fond.

Once the steak is cooked to your liking, you can remove it from the pan to rest and deglaze your pan's fond with some butter. Use your favorite wooden spoon to stir and chip away all of the flavorful brown bits and incorporate with the melting butter. Depending on how much fat was rendered from your steak, you may want to tone down the butter more than usual since you're already starting with fat in the pan left over from the cooked beef.

Once your fond is deglazed, you can follow your favorite Alfredo sauce recipe. Most call for similar ingredients, including heavy cream, butter, and Parmesan cheese. After melting the butter, consider adding in some finely chopped garlic and sauteing until fragrant. This movement will help lift any remaining fond from the bottom of the skillet and serve as an aromatic base for your sauce.

When it comes time to add the heavy cream (which is also the secret to Olive Garden's Alfredo sauce), the key is to stir constantly as you pour it in so that it mixes properly with the melted butter — only then can you bring everything to a low simmer to thicken. As the sauce is simmering, you can prepare your fettuccine in a pot of salted water, reserving some of the pasta water to thin your Alfredo sauce as needed. (The starchy liquid also helps the sauce stick to your pasta and prevents it from turning pasty.)

Finally, you want to thicken your sauce with cheese off the heat, otherwise it could separate or turn clumpy. Using freshly grated Parmesan is ideal, and you want to make sure to add it just a bit at a time, stirring continuously until melted and smooth. To serve, you can slice your steak as you normally would, or cube it up and toss it with your pasta before plating. Whatever you choose, your fettuccine is sure to be extra beefy.