Julie Clark
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Homemade Alfredo Sauce
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The BEST homemade Alfredo sauce recipe. Tips on how to get smooth, creamy white pasta sauce with heavy cream for fettuccine. You’ll be surprised at how easy this better-than-Olive Garden alfredo sauce is to make at home!
Easy Alfredo Sauce
Somewhere during Maddie’s life, she fell in love with Alfredo sauce. I’m not sure where she got it from. It wasn’t a sauce I regularly made or that we even tried at restaurants.
About two years ago a friend of ours made some homemade alfredo sauce for a dinner party. It tasted amazing and I couldn’t believe how easy it was! After she taught me her skills, I’ve made it several times at home, including shrimp alfredo, mushroom alfredo, tuscan chicken pasta and chicken alfredo pasta.
The original version of alfredo sauce was just butter and Parmesan….no heavy whipping cream. Americanized alfredo sauce has cream because our butter has less fat than other countries. Adding the cream helps the sauce be…well…creamier!
How to Make Alfredo Sauce
Alfredo sauce is a simple mix of three ingredients: heavy cream, butter and freshly shredded Parmesan cheese. Here are a few hints to remember as you create this recipe:
- Use a shallow but wide, heavy bottomed skillet or saucepan when warming the sauce. This promotes even cooking and will help the sauce cook more quickly with more surface area.
- Whisk constantly and keep the heat on medium low. Milk scorches so easily, so stir it often!
- Use freshly grated Parmesan cheese. This is key for a smooth sauce. Freshly shredded cheese melts so much more smoothly than pre-shredded. There are no additives to the cheese to make the cheese clumpy.
- Mix the cheese in very slowly, just a sprinkle at a time. Let each cheese addition melt before adding more. This will go more quickly than you may think, but be sure to take your time. Don’t rush homemade alfredo sauce!
- This could really be a 3-ingredient alfredo sauce recipe. It’s just that good. We do like to add in a touch of ground black pepper and minced fresh garlic for a little boost of flavor.
Fettuccini Alfredo
Homemade alfredo sauce is traditionally served over fettuccini pasta… a flat, ribbon pasta. Fettuccini is normally served with cream sauces such as this. You can substitute a difference pasta shape if you’d like!
Healthy Alfredo Sauces
We often get asked if we have a healthier alfredo sauce recipe. My first thought its that alfredo is best when made with heavy cream, butter and Parmesan! But here are some things to think about:
- Keto or Low Carb Alfredo Sauce. Alfredo is a great keto meal if served over low-carb zucchini noodles.
- Gluten Free Alfredo Sauce. Our homemade alfredo sauce is naturally gluten free, no flour for this white sauce! Serve over veggie noodles, potatoes, or gluten free pasta for a delicious, gluten free dinner.
- Light Alfredo Sauce. If you’d like to cut calories, use half and half in place of the heavy cream. This will allow the homemade alfredo sauce to still be creamy, but cut calories back by about 120 calories per serving for a total of 210 calories per ½ cup of pasta sauce. That’s a decent amount of calorie savings! (All calorie counts are estimations since different brands have differing calorie amounts.)
- Add in Veggies or Protein. After the sauce is made, toss in diced tomatoes, chopped asparagus or add more protein with rotisserie chicken.
What to Serve with Fettuccini Alfredo
- Italian Bread: This is a cool-rise bread that makes 2 loaves!
- Italian Green Beans: Drizzle a little homemade alfredo sauce over these beans….mmmm!
- Sugared Walnut Fruit Salad: A light, but sweet ending to a delicious meal.
How to Use Leftover Alfredo Sauce
Leftover alfredo sauce gets very thick after refrigerating, but honestly that doesn’t stop me from using it! Try it on one of these:
- shrimp alfredo pizza
- spread it on garlic bread
- dip roasted potatoes in it
Tools to Make Alfredo Sauce
- Heavy Bottomed Skillet: For more even heating so the milk doesn’t scorch.
- Cheese Shredder: An easy to use Parmesan cheese block shredder. Just like they use in Olive Garden!
- Spaghetti Tongs: For serving the fettuccini.
- Veggie Spiralizer: For low-carb zucchini noodles!
Homemade Alfredo Sauce
The BEST homemade Alfredo sauce recipe. Tips on how to get smooth, creamy white pasta sauce with heavy cream for fettuccini. You'll be surprised at how easy this better-than-Olive Garden alfredo sauce is to make at home!
Servings 8
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Ingredients
- 16 ounces heavy cream
- 1/4 cup salted butter
- 6-8 ounces Parmesan cheese block (about 1 1/2-2 cups)
- 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper (optional)
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic (optional)
Instructions
- In a heavy bottomed skillet, heat the cream and butter over medium low heat until the butter is melted. 16 ounces heavy cream, ¼ cup salted butter
- Use a grater to finely grate the Parmesan cheese. 6-8 ounces Parmesan cheese block
- Add the freshly shredded Parmesan cheese to the sauce a few tablespoons at a time, stirring between each addition so that the cheese melts evenly. Be sure not to add the cheese too quickly. Take your time and add it slowly, stirring constantly!
- After all the cheese is added, stir in the pepper and garlic, stirring over low heat for 1 minute. ⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper, 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- Remove the skillet from the heat and serve immediately over fettuccini or your favorite pasta. Garnish with fresh parsley and additional salt and pepper if needed.
Video
Notes
The calories shown are based on the recipe making about 4 cups of alfredo sauce, with 1 serving being ½ cup. Since different brands of ingredients have different nutritional information, the calories shown are just an estimate.
Nutrition
Calories: 330kcal | Carbohydrates: 2g | Protein: 8g | Fat: 32g | Saturated Fat: 20g | Cholesterol: 107mg | Sodium: 412mg | Potassium: 62mg | Vitamin A: 1175IU | Vitamin C: 0.5mg | Calcium: 290mg | Iron: 0.2mg
This is the BEST Alfredo sauce I’ve ever made at home. Keeping this 💜
Perfect!!!
How did this get 5 stars?! I followed the directions EXACTLY and the result was basically warmed milk that tasted like cheese. It did not get thick AT ALL. I thought I would let it set or something so it would thicken but the directions said to immediately pour on the noodles. What a waste!! And the cheese block was $10!
I used 6 oz of high quality parm and the sauce was amazing. With that amount of parmesan, it took 15-20 minutes for me to complete the sauce. Next time I would use a heavy bottom pot instead of sauté pan so I could whisk the Parmesan in instead of carefully stirring so the sauce didn’t spill over the edges of my pan. I kept the heat on med-low the entire time which heated the sauce, but never simmered it. It made enough sauce to cover an entire package of fettuccine noodles plus some.