Creamy Alfredo Sauce Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is creamy Alfredo sauce made of? ›

Alfredo Sauce Ingredients

You'll need just five simple ingredients to make this basic Alfredo sauce recipe: butter, heavy cream, Parmesan cheese, garlic, and fresh parsley.

Don't overheat any cheese sauce or it will “break” meaning that the cheese will separate into a thin sauce and bits of cheese which describes the “grainy” nature of your Alfredo sauce. Ideally Alfredo sauce should not be “cooked” at all but combined using the heat from the pasta only.

Mix the cornstarch with some cold water to create a smooth slurry, then whisk it into the sauce while cooking over medium-high heat for a few minutes. Add all-purpose flour. Another very common thickening agent that will give your Alfredo sauce a creamy texture.

Heartier herbs like thyme or oregano can be added in to simmer with the sauce. Add delicate herbs like parsley, basil, or chervil at the end to maintain their delicate, aromatic flavor. Quick tip: Swirl in a bit of leftover pesto to add another herbaceous twist to your Alfredo sauce.

Reduce the Heavy Cream

This means that if a recipe calls for one cup of heavy cream, you should reduce it until it measures about one-third cup; the water content will have evaporated, leaving behind a very decadent creamy sauce.

While controlling the heat is what helps the fat (oil) not separate from the sauce in the first place, adding cream to your leftovers is what helps to revive the dish. This leaves the pasta nice and creamy again and makes sure that it's not dried out.

Mix together a little cornstarch in a small bowl with some cold water (or other liquid) until the mixture is smooth to form a slurry. Slowly, whisk the slurry into the simmering sauce in a pan over medium to medium-high heat. Whisk the slurry slowly into the hot sauce until you get the desired thickness.

I would also not recommend using the shaker-style grated Parmesan for this reason. Pre-shredded cheese makes a grainy, lumpier sauce, so I usually buy a block of Parmesan and grate it myself using a microplane or box grater. Italian seasoning – Italian seasoning adds a little more flavor to the sauce.

Yes, as a matter of fact, using half and half instead of heavy cream results in a sauce that is equally as thick and creamy. How do you thicken half and half for Alfredo? We've added a couple tablespoons of flour to this sauce recipe to make sure the sauce turns out equivalently thick and creamy using half and half.

How do you keep pasta sauce creamy? ›

Now, the secret to that sauce is just to use cream and grated Parmesan. It's full of flavor, and it will stay creamy a long time. It won't get gluey and gnarly after a couple of minutes.

Once the pasta is in the sauce, add pasta water. This is the most vital step in the process. Starchy pasta water doesn't just help thin the sauce to the right consistency; it also helps it cling to the pasta better and emulsify with the fat and cheese you're going to be adding.

You can add a little store-bought cream cheese (or Neufchatel or Ricotta) and a sprinkle of Herbes du Provence spice (or any combination of thyme, savory, oregano, rosemary, marjoram, parsley, lavender) and fresh ground black peppercorns to jarred Alfredo sauce.

Add a few dashes of garlic powder to your simmering sauce, or a clove or two of fresh sauteed garlic, to brighten up the Alfredo and make its flavor pop. You can also sprinkle in some fresh or dried herbs, like oregano, thyme, or basil, to add complexity to the sauce.

Real alfredo sauce is made with 3 simple ingredients: butter, Parmesan cheese and fresh fettuccine pasta. There is absolutely no cream in this dish (cream is common in most American-style alfredo sauce recipes). Make this dish with my fresh homemade pasta, fresh sourdough pasta or store-bought fresh pasta.

Truth is all you need is cream, freshly grated parmesan cheese and a pinch of salt. Some recipes include milk or flour. This will lower the calories in the dish but will also reduce flavour.

White sauce – also known as béchamel – is made with flour, milk, and butter. It's a basic sauce that can be used as a base for other sauces or as a topping for dishes like lasagna. Alfredo sauce, on the other hand, is made with butter, cream, and Parmesan cheese, and has a much richer flavour than white sauce.

WATER, HEAVY CREAM, PARMESAN CHEESE (PASTEURIZED AND PART SKIM MILK, CHEESE CULTURE, SALT, ENZYMES), MODIFIED CORNSTARCH, SALT, FLAVORED BUTTER (BUTTER [CREAM, SALT], NATURAL FLAVOR), SUGAR, ENZYME MODIFIED EGG YOLKS.