I felt like I discovered fire when I made this last week.  So simple.  So delicious.  I could NOT stop eating this.  The most important thing to know about making this pasta dish is that you need to hand grate some really good Italian parmesan cheese.  DO NOT USE PRE-GRATED CHEESE.  It’s just not the same!  And don’t overcook the pasta.  I use the dried pasta in the brown cardboard box (the expensive kind) that requires no more than 2 minutes of gentle boiling in HEAVILY salted water.  (If you watch Chopped, you know that salting the water you boil the pasta in is an absolute MUST.  I mean salt it heavily — it should taste like ocean water).  Minced bits of prosciutto tossed into the sauce take this dish over the top!  That’s the way they do it at Fausto’s on Vets in Metairie, Louisiana.  A little lemon zest on the top of the pasta dish at the end is wonderful.  Crack some black pepper over everything and try not to look completely like a slob as you twirl the noodles and slurp this up.  Better yet, dine alone.  Omg, this is good.

NOTE: WHEN I MADE THIS IN MARCH OF 2024, I REALIZED THE PARMESAN CHEESE WAS JUST TOO STRONG FOR MY TASTE BUDS.  IT COULD BE THAT MY SENSE OF TASTE HAS BEEN ALTERED BY MEDICATION, OR THAT THE CHEESE I PICKED UP AT DORIGNAC’S WAS JUST TOO FUNKY.  WHATEVER IT WAS, I USED A GOOD QUALITY WHITE CHEDDAR CHEESE INSTEAD AND IT WAS DELICIOUS.  I THINK THIS IS PROBABLY THE WAY I WILL MAKE THIS FROM NOW ON.  NOT A TRADITIONAL ALFREDO BUT PERFECTLY HOMEY AND COMFORTING.