Just in time for National Alfredo Day, February 7th, Bertolli has introduced two USDA-certified organic alfredo pasta sauces.

The creamy new sauces are available in two delicious varieties, including:

 
Available at grocers nationwide, these sauces are made from all-organic ingredients including aged parmesan and fresh cream.

The plain sauce [photo #1] has a delightful hint of nutmeg, while the garlic sauce is…lightly garlicky.

While Bertolli’s sauce is not as rich and artery-clogging as the original recipe (see below), it does need a sprinkle of fresh-grated parmesan cheese to achieve true Alfredo flavor.

(TIP: We buy fresh-grated parmesan, romano or pecorino at a specialty market—finely grated, not flakes), and keep the container in the freezer.)

While it isn’t part of the original Alfredo recipe, the dish is popularly enhanced with green peas. To tell the truth, the white-on-beige dish needs some color.

We also enjoy some shredded fresh basil or chopped parsley [photo #2], plus cracked pepper.

You can garnish at will; for example, with diced red bell pepper, and with other herbs or spices. If you like red pepper flakes, for example, sprinkle them on: a hot counterpoint to the creaminess.
 
 
MORE ALFREDO, MORE BERTOLLI

Americans must love Alfredo sauce. In the conventional (non-organic) line, Bertolli has five options: Alfredo with Aged Parmesan Cheese Sauce, Creamy Basil Alfredo with Aged Parmesan Cheese Sauce, Garlic Alfredo with Aged Parmesan Cheese Sauce, Mushroom Alfredo with Portobello Mushroom Sauce, and Reduced Fat Alfredo Sauce.

The organic Alfredo sauces join a lineup of organic red sauces, including Fire-Roasted Garlic Marinara; Five Cheese, Tomato & Basil, and Olive Oil, Basil & Garlic.
 
 
USES FOR ALFREDO SAUCE

While the original Chef Alfredo created a rich but plain pasta dish, subsequent cooks have used the sauce in more elaborate ways.

 
 
THE HISTORY OF FETTUCINE ALFREDO

For purists, the name in Italian is Fettuccine all’Alfredo.

The original recipe was created in 1914 by Alfredo Di Lelio, owner of Alfredo alla Scrofa restaurant in Rome.

As the story goes, Alfredo created the dish to appeal to his pregnant wife, who had lost her appetite. He served it with egg fettuccine, hoping that the “nutritious dish*” would do the trick.

In his restaurant’s kitchen, the hot fettuccine was tossed in a skillet with the grated parmesan, butter and cream. As the cheese melted into the butter and cream, it formed a sauce that coated the pasta. He finished the dish with grated parmesan.

Long before Alfredo created his recipe, Italians enjoyed variations of the dish: fettuccine al burro, fettuccine with butter; and fettuccine al burro e panna, with butter and cream—both served, of course, with grated parmesan.

When butter was added both before and after fettuccine was put in the serving bowl for tossing, it was known as doppio burro, double butter.

Alfredo tweaked the recipe slightly. He doubled the amount of butter in the bowl before the fettuccine was added, creating a triplo burro, triple butter, recipe. More butter made more of a sauce (and an even richer sauce).

Italian White Sauce Cousins

Alfredo sauce’s cousin is carbonara sauce, also a white cream sauce made with cream, parmesan, and eggs instead of butter. It is further flavored with onion, garlic and pancetta (streaky bacon is often substituted in the U.S.).

[2] In a classic Alfredo, the fettucine is drenched in the sauce. You can sauce your pasta more modestly. Photo courtesy Cooking Classy.

[3] Alfredo Primavera adds veggies, adding some “guilt-free” to the guilt. Here’s the recipe from Bertolli.

[4] Chicken Alfredo—no pasta, just chicken, plum tomatoes and alfredo sauce. Here’s the recipe from Bertolli.

Buon appetito!
________________

*Today, we know that a small serving of the “nutritious dish” has 455 calories, 38g of fat, 291mg of sodium and 143g of cholesterol. But for people who love rich, creamy food, it hits the spot
  

[2] We drink Rau from the bottle, but you can choose your vessel.

[3] Coconut lovers: You have another reason to be happy.

[4] Rau’s recipe for Chocolate Oat Brownie Batter oatmeal: 1/2 cup oats, 1/2 tablespoon cocoa powder, 1/4 cup of Bold Original Rau, 1/4 cup almond milk, plus 1/2 tablespoon chia seeds and toppings of choice.

How could any chocolate beverage with such low sugar taste this good?

We’re shamelessly in love with the bottled rink line called Rau. Chocolate has returned to its roots, as an energizing drink (it took thousands of years to produce solid chocolate—the history of chocolate).

How to describe Rau? It’s a line of dairy-free, cacao-based “superfood drinks” that are low in sugar and high in flavor.

Unlike chocolate milk, for example, the product tastes wonderfully healthful, as raw cacao does (the flavor is similar to a sweetened cacao nib). It’s not for the milk-chocolate-only crowd, but for those who enjoy semisweet chocolate flavor.

Dairy-free and vegan doesn’t mean richness-free. While the drink is not viscous, it’s the very lack of milkfat viscosity that makes it so refreshing.

The richness comes from cocoa butter, which is separated from the cacao bean when the cocoa powder is pressed (here’s more about cocoa powder production). The result is what we call “light richness,” one of those oxymorons that works.
 
A GUILT-FREE CHOCOLATE DRINK

The drinks manage to be both refreshing and indulgent; and at 120 calories/8g sugar per 12-ounce bottle, with clean ingredients, they’re a pretty guilt-free chocolate snack. It’s Rau a “naked” product, free of refined sugar, dairy, GMOs, soy and anything artificial*.
 
The cacao delivers the antioxidant benefits of raw cocoa†, and preserves vital nutrients with a technique called high pressure processed (HPP).

With HPP, the beverage is put under thousands of pounds of cold water pressure to eliminate bacteria while keeping the drink raw.‡ The company calls it “the first cold pressured chocolate beverage.”

Modestly sweetened with coconut palm sugar (8g), enhanced with a bit of monk fruit (lo han guo), a melon grown in Southeast Asia that, like stevia, provides a calorie-free, natural (non-chemical) sweetener.

The only challenge is that consumers are going to pronounce the brand as rhyming with cow, while the company pronounces it raw, as in raw cacao. (A point of trivia: The brand’s logo is a gorilla, and “rau” means hairy or shaggy in German.)
 
DON’T PICK YOUR FLAVOR: TRY THEM ALL!

There are six spot-on flavors, each a must-try:

 
MORE WAYS TO ENJOY RAU CHOCOLATE DRINK

We think the drinks are perfect as is, right from the bottle. But the sybarites among is should consider adding it to:

 
SEND IT AS A GIFT

You can buy it online and send it as a Valentine gift—or an anytime gift for a chocolate lover.

And by all means, bring a copy of this article to your local retailers and ask them to carry it.

The SRP is $3.99 a bottle, and worth every penny (we currently have a two-bottle-a-day habit).
 

*The ingredients are filtered water, cacao (cocoa) powder, cacao (cocoa) butter, Himalayan pink salt, vanilla or other extract, spices and monk fruit extract.

†The biggest typo in chocolate history: Cocoa is a transposition of cacao, the original name of the tree and its fruit (the pods that bear the seeds, or beans, that are harvested and roasted to start the chocolate-making process). The misspelling probably happened on an African trading ship manifest in the 18th century. But for some merchant’s mistake, we’d be drinking a nice hot cup of cacao and mixing cacao with butter, sugar and eggs to make brownies.

‡The high heat of pasteurizing, which cannot be used on raw foods, cooks off important nutrients.”

But we never got around to getting rose syrup.

This year, we found 4-ounce bottles of it, and are giving them as Valentine gifts along with a bottle of grapefruit bitters and this recipe (BYO vodka or gin).

If you prefer, you can substitute hibiscus syrup for rose. The syrup from Wild Hibiscus Flower Company has a candied hibiscus in the bottle, good for garnish.
 
 
RECIPE #1: VALENTINE ROSE COCKTAIL

Ingredients Per Drink

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE the vodka and syrup io a mixing glass filled ice; stir well.

2. STRAIN into a chilled coupe glass, topping off with a few dashes of bitters on top. Garnish with rose petals and serve.
 
Notes

 
 
RECIPE #2: ROSE SYRUP

If you want to make your own rose syrup, here’s how.
 
Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE the ingredients in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a slow boil, stirring frequently.

2. BOIL for 5 to 10 minutes, until the liquid becomes a thick syrup. Remove from the heat. Add the food color to desired intensity.

3. STRAIN out the rose petals and pour the syrup into a the glass container.

[2] Monin and Torani make rose-flavored syrup, but Middle Eastern brands have more intense rose flavor (photo courtesy Monin).<
[3] Eat your roses in faloodeh, rosewater sorbet (photo courtesy The Persian Fusion).

We love faloodeh (faludeh), the heavenly Middle Eastern rose water sorbet. We’re fortunate enough to buy it locally, in Middle Eastern grocery stores.

It demands to be tried! Here’s a recipe.

[2] A caramel pecan sundae atop a caramel pecan bar (photo courtesy Go Bold With Butter).

[3] Hot fudge with blondie crumbs and raspberries (photo courtesy Elegant Affairs Caterers).

[4] Strawberry sundae with cookie crumbles (photo courtesy McConnell’s Ice Cream).

We love to entertain with DIY food bars, a.k.a. party bars, because that’s the way we like to eat.

Give us a table of ingredients and let us pick and choose what we want on top of the base food (burgers, ice cream, mac and cheese, whatever). We couldn’t be happier.

The difference between a party bar and a buffet is that a buffet sets out ready-to-eat dishes, while a DIY bar sets out the main food plus toppings, so everyone can customize their plates.

You can tell how much we like this concept, from the number of party bar concepts we’ve shared over the years (most of them are listed below).

For Super Bowl Sunday, among other favorite foods, we’re having a DIY Nachos Bar (shrimp nachos, anyone? blue and feta cheeses in addition to cheddar and jack?) and a DIY Guacamole Bar.

Tomorrow morning, we’ll start planning for Valentine’s Day. We’ll pick some of the ideas below, and conclude with the sundae bar.

New this year: a DIY Red Cocktails Bar.

To pull together your own sundae bar for Valentine’s Day, start with the Ice Cream Bar ingredients. Add some Valentine’s Day touches: Red Hots, message hearts and other Valentine candy, plus heart-shaped cookies.
 
 
DIY PARTY BARS

Yesterday we presented some non-traditional Valentine food gifts. Today, we take on the more expected categories of sweets, plus something with zero calories: artisan Valentine tea blends.

In alphabetical order, we recommend:

FEED YOUR SOUL: VEGAN BROWNIES

This bakery’s lineup includes popular cookies and bars (chocolate chip, peanut butter, etc.), but our pick for your Valentine are the vegan brownies (photo #1).

Rich, fudgy and melt-in-your-mouth, you wouldn’t know that they’re vegan. They’ll be a favorite with everyone, including the lactose-intolerant (no butter!) and kosher eaters (they’re certified kosher by OU).

The size is also great: a two-inch square: just enough to enjoy yourself, not enough to over-indulge. That’s the excuse we gave ourselves as we also dug into the magic bar and raspberry crumb cake squares.

Twelve vegan brownies, individually wrapped for freshness, arrive in a keepsake silver tin adorned with satin ribbon ($38). Get yours at FeedYourSoulBakery.com.
 
 
LITTLE BIRD KITCHEN: SPICY CHOCOLATE

With just enough spice to please, Little Bird Kitchen blends spicy Belgian chocolate—in dark, milk or white—with finely ground candied jalapeños (photo #2). Sprinkled with a touch of sea salt, they make us…happy.

The tiny bites are so irresistible, in fact, that we’re fortunate they’re made in one-ounce packages for portion control.

The cheerful white packets also make nice party favors…and down the line, stocking stuffers.

Get yours at Little Bird Kitchen.com.

You’ll also find other delights, from the simply-perfect hot and sweet candied peanuts, to chocolate drinking cups, to jalapeño simple syrup, for cocktails and ice cream topping.

The line is certified kosher (dairy) by OK.

 
QUIN CANDY: OLD-FASHIONED FAVORITES

Quin Candy makes small-batch, old-time favorites like fruity gumdrops, lollipops and hard candy (photo #3).

There are chocolate options, too: chocolate caramels, chewy chocolate dreams, chocolate lollipops, chocolate magic dust—plus pinot gris and pinot noir lollipops.

The colorful window boxes show the treats inside, and can be wrapped or handed out as party favors.

Get yours at QuinCandy.com.

Don’t overlook the Tart ‘N Fruity Old Fashioned Hard Candy, a personal favorite.

[1] Feed Your Soul’s vegan brownies melt in your mouth. They’re dairy free and kosher (photo courtesy Feed Your Soul Bakery).

[2] Little Bird Kitchen’s bites of Belgian chocolate—dark, milk or white—are perfectly spiced with jalapeno (photo courtesy BrandFire).

[3] Quin’s strawberry gum drops, one of a line of classic favorites (photo courtesy Quin Candy Co.).

[4] Fine artisan chocolates from St. Croix Chocolate Co. make any chocolate-lover’s heart go pitter patter (photo courtesy St. Croix Chocolate).

[5] Tay Tea has Valentine blends for lovers, in herbal and black blends (photo courtesy Tay Tea).

ST. CROIX CHOCOLATE CO.

Over the years we have written about many artisan chocolatiers nationwide. This year’s discovery is St. Croix Chocolate Co. of St. Croix, Minnesota (photo #4).

Great flavors and great art combine to make these delights worth sending for.

There are heart-shaped and square boxes, large and small. Extra-special is the heart-shaped edible chocolate box, filled with individual pieces.

Take a look at StCroixChocolateCo.com.
 
 
TAY TEA VALENTINE BLENDS

What’s better than something that has a heavenly aroma, glorious flavor and zero calories?

These Valentine blends from artisan tea blender Tay Tea are ready to warm up your loved ones (they’re also delicious iced):

 
If they doesn’t put recipients in an amorous mood, they will put them in a delighted one. The loose teas are available in giftable tins and apothecary jars, plus small packets if you just want to try them.

Get yours at TayTea.com.