Best Homemade Alfredo Sauce is rich, creamy, and packed with garlic parmesan flavor! This Alfredo Sauce is easy to make and perfect with your favorite pasta!
Alfredo Sauce:
Alfredo sauce is one of my favorite things to have with a big bowl of pasta! It's a very rich and indulgent treat for dinner. I also love that it only takes about 5-10 minutes to whip up a batch! This recipe will yield about two cups of sauce total. It can easily be doubled if you are feeding a crowd or want extra for later. The bottled Alfredo just doesn't compare to this delicious homemade version! If you love cooking from scratch, make some of this Homemade Pasta to go along with your sauce!
What is Alfredo Sauce?
Traditional Alfredo is a simple white/cream sauce. It is made from butter, heavy cream, and parmesan cheese. While the original style is great, I simply like to add garlic, salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning to make Alfredo sauce taste even better!
How to Make Alfredo Sauce:
- The first step to making Alfredo is to warm your butter and cream in a large saucepan over low heat. You will let it simmer (but not boil) for about 2 minutes.
- Next, you will whisk in your garlic and seasonings. Whisking constantly for about one minute just to let the garlic cook.
- Lastly, you will add your parmesan cheese and stir just until the cheese has melted and your sauce is smooth.
Note that it is best to use freshly grated parmesan cheese right off of the block so that your sauce isn't grainy. I do not recommend using the "shaker" style container grated cheese for this recipe.
The Parmesan will thicken this sauce up. If it isn't quite thick enough, allow the sauce to stand for 2-3 minutes before serving.
If you love making your own pasta sauce at home, be sure to try out my Easy Homemade Pesto as well!
Enjoy!
~Nichole
Best Homemade Alfredo Sauce
Ingredients
- ½ Cup Butter
- 1 ½ Cups Heavy Whipping Cream
- 2 Teaspoons Garlic Minced
- ½ Teaspoon Italian Seasoning
- ½ Teaspoon Salt
- ¼ Teaspoon Pepper
- 2 Cups Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese
Instructions
- Add the butter and cream to a large skillet.
- Simmer over low heat for 2 minutes.
- Whisk in the garlic, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper for one minute.
- Whisk in the parmesan cheese until melted.
- Serve immediately.
This was amazing! And I made way too much thinking I needed to double it for a family of 8. I have a whole mason jar leftover... Do you know if this will do well if i freeze it?
I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Unfortunately, this one doesn't freeze well
VERY easy and VERY tasty! I added a bit of garlic and onion powder, but otherwise followed the recipe. I tossed some with some ravioli and drizzled some on some baked chicken breasts. Served it all with some honey rosemary carrots and it was DELICIOUS! 😋
I made this substituting the heavy cream with butter and milk. I doubled the recipe. It was great,
I’m lactose intolerant but I can have Parmesan. I want to make this for a friend but I don’t want to get super sick. Do you have any alternatives that you would recommend in place of the heavy cream? I have done some research online but I just wanted more feedback on what’s worked for people
Hi! Since I'm not dairy free myself, I haven't tried an alternative, but perhaps someone else will chime in. I will say that I Googled "dairy free alfredo sauce" and there are several good looking recipes that are highly rated, so maybe give that a shot 🙂
Hi Jennifer! I made this for my brother and his wife with oat milk. The oat milk is creamy and nutty. I added a tiny bit of grated nutmeg also! It was delicious, cheers!
Very tasty and super easy to make. I love it, my family loves it.
Thanks for the recommendation. I am making this real soon .
I added chicken, prociutto, mushrooms and chopped kalamata olives just like one of our favorite local restaurants. This sauce is easy and delicious. Be sure to use the fresh parmesan block.
This sauce was amazing!!! My family loved it!
Is the butter salted or unsalted? can i use margarine if salted?
I’ve used both for this recipe. Margarine and Butter. Or even half of each. The heavy cream is rich enough that the margarine won’t take the quality of taste away. Just be sure to NEVER use pre grated cheese. Always use the hard triangle and grate at home.
Perfect Alfredo sauce! Comes out good every time.
This is my go to as well for Alfredo. I play around with the amount of heavy cream. If you keep the heat going well, I also do use shaker parm and it does work. Just need to whisk well. Just in case someone needs a cheaper option or only had that on hand. Flavor is still great just gotta make sure you mix very well and add a little at a time. I usually use around a half a jar for this. I don’t recommend doing that until you are comfortable with the recipe without burning cream etc…. Also great with some chopped roasted red bell pepper at the stage you add garlic. Gives a nice flavor and color!
Absolutely LOVE this sauce!
Why so thick?
I’m not complaining, but I did have to add some more heavy cream to thin it out some 🙂 just a preference I suppose
For some reason many of the online recipes are thicker in consistency than the traditional Italian version. Some even add cream cheese. I’m guessing it’s to bump up the umami quotient.
I add whole milk if it seems too thick. Works great for me!
Great receipt we made it and it can out very good
THANKS
I used store boat grated Parmesan. The added chicken and it tasted amazing. The texture was a bit crumbly. I added the cheese a little at a time and cooked on low flame for a good 10 minutes. What can I do better next time?
Hi Mo,
You're going to want to get fresh parmesan and grate it yourself. Pre-grated parmesan gets coated in an anticlumping agent which prevents the cheese from dissolving smoothly into the sauce. Give it a try and I'm sure you'll love it so much you'll never want to buy pre-grated parmesan again!
Don’t use store bought grated parm…buy a slice and grate it yourself.
Grate your parmesan instead of buying it already shredded.
Try grating a parm cheese from a block. Do NOT use store-bought shredded cheese for sauces. These are coated with a slight cellulose powder. This powder keeps the cheese from sticking together in the package. I've been told this is what causes the cheese to be gritty or crumbly or just not smooth. One other thing you can try is to substitute the heavy whipping cream with evaporated milk instead.
Use a block of parm and shred it fresh. The store bought grated tastes good but does leave a weird texture. Hope this helps!
Using Parmesan on the block and grating at home makes a huge difference. Consistency and flavor is better
Thanks for the suggestion!
Great recipe. Added grilled chicken and prosciutto and my family loved it!
Didn't read the part that said serve immediately lol. It all worked out. Thanks for the recipe.
How can I make it so it’s good to reheat the next day? Best Alfredo ever! But hubby says it’s not good reheating at lunch time.
Add cream cheese to the mixture, or that's what I do one 8 oz block of cream cheese and not only is it excellent the next day, it also does well after freezing.
Warm on the stove. I never warm in the microwave unless it's something that keeps its flavor. Almost everything is better warmed on the stove or in the oven.