No one knows where this recipe came from.  Miriam has had it saved as a Word document on various computers for well over a decade, which means she probably got it from somewhere online during the dark days of dial-up internet.

But , this has become one of our go-to vegetarian recipes, because it’s delicious (who doesn’t love creamy alfredo sauce?) and really, really easy.

How easy?  You only need five ingredients:

• Fettuccine
• Butter
• Half-and-half
• Parmesan cheese
• Pepper

Plus, if you’re looking to make this pasta dish a little less calorie-dense, you can use light butter and fat-free half-and-half and it’ll still taste great.

So here’s what you do:  first, cook your fettuccine and shred your parmesan cheese.

Once the water is boiling for your pasta, go ahead and warm up the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.  When the butter is completely melted, add the half-and-half.

Then pour your parmesan cheese in.

Whisk everything together until you have a smooth sauce, then pour it over the fettuccine and mix the pasta and sauce together.

You can also add some extra shredded parmesan and cracked black pepper on top when you’re ready to serve it.

Like we said, super easy and super tasty.  This is a handy recipe to have in your back pocket for when you need to make a quick dinner, because it’s homemade but not at all difficult to cook.  Try it out and you’ll see how simple it can be to make delicious meat-free pasta sauces.