I am a firm believer that delicious things DO NOT need to be complicated. This Alfredo Sauce Recipe is the perfect example. It’s rich, creamy and buttery, but still only made with 4 ingredients; cream, butter, garlic and parmesan. You are going to love that it is ready in about 15 minutes. You can serve your Homemade Alfredo over pasta or grilled chicken, in a lasagna, or as a white pizza sauce… Just promise me that when you make it homemade, you’ll never use jarred alfredo again!
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4 Ingredients
Yep – just 4 simple ingredients come together to make the Best Alfredo Sauce, promise! Here are the ingredients you need:
Salted Butter – simple salted butter… and you know what we say here at Mom’s Dinner “salted butter is the only one we recognize as butter”. Cut the butter into tablespoons so it will melt faster in the pan.
Garlic – 2 fresh minced garlic cloves add perfect flavor to the Alfredo. But add more garlic as you would like.
Parmesan – this is the majority of the flavor in your Alfredo. Choose a parmesan that has the flavor you like. I have been using the raw milk parmesan from Whole Foods and it is so good!
Coarsely Ground Parmesan
In a lot of the recipes on Mom’s Dinner that call for parmesan we say “coarsely ground parmesan”. Especially any meatball recipe! It is our preferred way to “grate” parmesan. It helps it melt perfectly into the Alfredo Sauce and gives you pockets of parmesan in your meatballs.
We do this by cutting the parmesan into chunks and then placing it in a blender and pulsing a few times until it resembles a very small gravel.
Heavy Cream – do not try to replace the heavy cream in this recipe for something with less calories. You need the fat in the heavy cream to make this super creamy Alfredo.
Watch The Recipe
How To Make Easy Alfredo Sauce
Step 1
Cube the butter and melt in the pan over low heat.
Step 2
Add the garlic and warm for about 2 minutes.
Step 3
Pour in the cream and simmer with the butter over medium low heat for a few minutes.
Step 4
Sprinkle in half of the parmesan cheese and whisk, then add the remaining cheese and continue to whisk until all the cheese is incorporated and melted in.
Alfredo Recipe Tips
- Do not add salt while making your Alfredo, the salt content in the butter and the parmesan may be enough. Wait until it is complete, then taste and add salt and pepper as needed.
- Cubing the butter to start help it melt faster without browning.
- There are only 4 ingredients, choose quality for the best flavor.
- The parmesan cheese is the most pronounced flavor of the Alfredo, so choose one you love the flavor of.
- If you plan to serve this with pasta, reserve some of the starchy pasta cooking water to help thin the sauce or reconstitute it if it sits and thickens too much.
- Add half the cheese to start, whisk it in THEN add the other half. This helps ensure the cheese doesn’t all clump together in the sauce.
Ways To Serve Homemade Alfredo
Of course the most common way to use an Alfredo sauce is tossed with pasta… Fettuccine Alfredo anyone?? It could also make an amazing sauce in a white lasagna.
If you don’t like red sauce on pizza, you can sub this Alfredo. However when you use it for pizza I would make it a little thicker. Bump up the parmesan to 1 ยผ cups. That should be perfect.
Next time you grill chicken and think that it needs a little something else, whip up a batch of Homemade Alfredo Sauce and drizzle it over top.
Recipe Troubleshooting
This Alfredo is PERFECT as is… but I also know that sh*% happens in the kitchen and things don’t always go as planned. Here are some tips on troubleshooting your Alfredo Sauce:
It’s too thin? Keep simmering. It should thicken a little more. If you still need it thicker, sprinkle in a little more parmesan cheese and whisk until it is melted. Repeat until it is as thick as you like it. BUT REMEMBER… alfredo will thicken a little as it cools!
Got too thick? This is a super easy fix, add some more cream or milk. If you cooked pasta for the Alfredo, add in some of the starchy pasta cooking water.
It’s way too Salty? Remember.. don’t salt the sauce until the end. It might not need it. But if it’s too late, add some more cream to the mixture. Taste and see if that did the trick. You may need to simmer a little extra to thicken.
Needs more flavor? A couple things you can do to add more flavor – add in another minced garlic clove, sprinkle in some garlic powder, onion powder, dried basil or dried oregano. Try some black pepper. Then if you really want a kick of flavor zest a little lemon into the sauce ( I love this one!).
The Alfredo Sauce cooled and seized up? Turn that heat on to low and get to whiskin’. If you have some warm starchy pasta cooking water you can add that in too.
I made Fettuccine Alfredo and the sauce got hard on the noodles? I have definitely had this happen… “dinner is ready”… nobody comes for dinner… 20 minutes later the fettuccine alfredo looks like glue. DO NOT PANIC. This is a super easy fix. Put the pasta in a pan over low heat. If you have some of the starchy pasta cooking water add a few tablespoons to the pan, if not you can add some milk. Stir or toss the pasta constantly over the heat and it will be good to go in about a minute.
Not all my parmesan melted?? I have had this happen! If you are cutting fresh parmesan and get some of the rind in the mix, it won’t melt. Run the alfredo sauce through a fine mesh sieve and press the alfredo through with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. You will have SMOOTH Alfredo in seconds!
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Homemade Alfredo Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 5 tablespoon Salted Butter
- 1 ยฝ cup Heavy Cream
- 2 Plump garlic cloves - minced
- ยพ cup Parmesan Cheese - fresh grated
Instructions
- RECIPE NOTES – do not add salt until the sauce is finished.. you may not need any salt.Also, if you are serving the Alfredo over pasta, reserve some of the starchy pasta cooking water.
- In a skillet add the butter and melt. Then add the garlic and warm over low heat for 2 minutes.5 tablespoon Salted Butter, 2 Plump garlic cloves
- Pour in the cream. Bring to a slight simmer over medium-low heat, whisking often, for about 2 minutes.1 ยฝ cup Heavy Cream
- Whisk in half the parmesan cheese until fully incorporated. (if adding cooked pasta, do that now)ยพ cup Parmesan Cheese
- Then add the remaining parmesan cheese and whisk vigorously until everything is melted, incorporated and thickened.
- Remove from the heat. It will thicken even more when cooling.
- Taste for seasoning; kosher salt and black pepper
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