If you think you can’t make a homemade pasta sauce on a busy weeknight, think again. This simple Alfredo sauce from scratch is easier than you might think. Grab your ingredients and you can have dinner ready in about 20 minutes.
What Do I Need For Alfredo Sauce?
All it takes is four main ingredients and some salt and pepper to make a great Alfredo sauce from scratch. I promise if you try this, you will never buy a jar of premade sauce again.
- Heavy Cream– Sometimes labeled heavy whipping cream. Make sure it’s cream and not half and half. It is similar but won’t thicken the sauce as well.
- Butter– Use real, unsalted butter for this recipe. Don’t even attempt this with margarine or any other butter substitute. Not just for the sake of the flavor, but also for the consistency.
- Garlic– Using whole, slightly crushed garlic cloves infuses the garlic flavor into the cream. If you prefer you can also use minced garlic or even garlic powder. Fresh garlic just elevates the flavor profile so much better. Don’t use garlic salt though. The parmesan cheese is salty enough and you don’t want the salt to overpower the entire dish.
- Parmesan Cheese- I highly recommend buying a wedge of real, whole parmesan cheese and grating it yourself. If you only have the grated cheese in the can with the green lid, by all means you can use it, however you will be surprised how much better the flavor is with real cheese.
- Salt and Pepper– You honestly shouldn’t need much of either. The parmesan cheese provides plenty of saltiness on its own. You can also substitute white pepper in place of traditional black pepper if you don’t like to see the pepper in your white sauce.
Other Ways To Serve This Sauce
Alfredo isn’t just for pasta noodles. Use it as a dipping sauce for breadsticks. It’s delicious over roasted veggies like cauliflower and broccoli. You can even add it to your mashed potato recipe for an unexpected flavor twist.
Easy Weeknight Alfredo Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 c Heavy Cream
- 3 tbsp Unsalted Butter
- 2 Garlic Cloves whole, peeled
- 1/3 c Parmesan Cheese freshly grated
- Salt and Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Melt butter in sauce pan on medium low heat.
- Add the whole garlic cloves and sauté until fragrant, about 3 minutes.
- Pour in the heavy cream and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer until starting to thicken, about 7 minutes.
- Remove the garlic cloves from the pan and discard.
- Add the parmesan cheese and whisk until blended.
- At this point you can add your cooked pasta noodles if that is how you are serving this sauce.
- Serve while still warm.
