In just 10-minutes you can make our quick alfredo sauce to top all of your favorite dishes! Made with heavy whipping cream, fresh parmesan, garlic, and butter, this easy homemade alfredo sauce will have you wondering why you ever topped your fettuccini, chicken, or seafood with the store-bought stuff. Grab a saucepan and let’s get to making our easy recipe that is a WHOLE LOTTA YUM.
Alfredo Sauce Recipe (BEST Ever Version!)
If you always save your alfredo sauce cravings for eating out at Olive Garden, or reach for a jar in the grocery store, you’ll be so happy to know this authentic alfredo sauce is a piece of cake to make!
Not only is homemade alfredo sauce quick and easy, by making it yourself, but you will also know that your quick alfredo sauce doesn’t have any of the fillers or questionable ingredients that are all too common in modern foods.
Yes, this quick alfredo sauce recipe truly is as simple, delicious, and healthy as it gets.
And once you learn the method, you will be able to use your quick and easy alfredo sauce to top all of your favorite dishes including fettuccine alfredo, chicken, seafood, or even use it in a casserole in place of a red sauce. Or, drizzle it over your favorite vegetable noodle for a healthy and flavorful dish that keeps you on track with your food goals.
Why You’ll Love This!
- Our quick alfredo sauce is seriously quick as it needs just 10 minutes of your time!
- Made with heavy cream and real parmesan, our homemade alfredo is based on an authentic alfredo recipe.
- Filled with flavor, you’ll love to know that our simple alfredo sauce is perfect for gluten-free, low-carb, and keto-friendly!
- Requiring just 4 ingredients (6 if you count the salt and pepper), our quick alfredo sauce recipe is a simple sauce that only tastes complicated.
Are you looking for some variety when it comes to making a homemade alfredo sauce? Not to worry as we have you covered with our keto alfredo with zoodles and our Instant Pot alfredo recipe.
On Keto? Grab our FREE keto foods list here OR Snag our Keto Binder HERE
Ingredient Notes
An authentic alfredo sauce recipe actually just contains 3 ingredients– heavy whipping cream, butter, and parmesan cheese! However, we are going to add a little additional flavor with garlic, salt, and pepper.
And, because there are so few ingredients in this quick alfredo sauce, you want to make sure to use high-quality ingredients.
- Heavy whipping cream
- Butter
- Garlic – for best results we highly recommend fresh cloves rather than powder
- Shredded Parmesan cheese
- Sea salt and pepper to taste, optional
Our personal favorite brand of dairy products, especially cheese, is Tillamook (no, they did not sponsor us to say that). None of their products include artificial ingredients (even their ice cream!) and no growth hormones are used.
Step by Step Instructions
Heat and stir – your quick alfredo sauce is truly that easy!
Prep
Heat a medium-size saucepan on medium-low heat.
Once the pan is warm, melt the butter.
Assemble
Once the butter has melted, add in the heavy whipping cream, garlic, and salt and pepper.
Stir to combine all of the ingredients together.
Add the shredded parmesan cheese in batches until it’s melted, stirring constantly.
Heat the alfredo sauce to a simmer (do not let it boil) and remove from heat. The sauce will continue to thicken upon standing.
So easy! Enjoy!
Serves 4 if you’re making fettuccini alfredo and adding it to 8 oz of cooked pasta.
Recipe Tips
- For best results, add the shredded parmesan in small batches rather than all at once and allow it to fully incorporate before you add ore. Adding the parmesan too quickly could cause your homemade alfredo sauce to become grainy in texture.
- It is super important that you do not let your sauce come to a boil. At a boiling temperature, the butter could separate from the rest of the sauce or the milk could burn–both of which would cause your sauce to separate.
- If your sauce thickens too much you can thin it with a little milk, heavy cream, or chicken broth.
Common Questions
You can make your quick and easy alfredo sauce up to 3 days before you want to use it. Allow the sauce to cool before refrigerating in a sealed container or mason jar with lid.
The MAIN difference between carbonara and alfredo sauce is in addition to bacon (or pancetta). Carbonara also includes egg, where alfredo does not, and a carbonara uses romano cheese instead of parmesan.
They are both, however, delicious over a variety of pastas, vegetable noodles, and meats.
If you want to lighten the alfredo sauce to reduce fat and calories, we highly recommend substituting evaporated milk for the whipping cream.
However, if you only have milk on hand, it can work. Simply bring all of the ingredients to a simmer. Remove 1/4 cup of the warm sauce and mix well with 1-2 Tbsp of all-purpose flour to make a roux.
Blend the roux in with the remaining sauce until it reaches the desired thickness. You can also add a touch of cream cheese to help thicken your alfredo sauce too.
While you technically could make alfredo sauce with milk, you’ll be losing a lot of the rich creamy flavor the dish is popular for.
To thicken your alfredo with half ‘n’ half, use 1 Tbsp of flour.
If your alfredo sauce turned out grainy, it’s usually because of one of the following reasons:
Either the sauce started boiling, which caused the butter to separate OR
The cheese got overcooked and either curdled or became grainy.
To prevent this in the future, make sure to keep your temperature on low and take the sauce off the heat once it’s just mixed. The cheese will continue to melt and thicken the sauce off the heat too.
More Sauce Recipes
Looking for more sauce recipes?
Come connect with us on Instagram! Be sure to tag us (wholelotta.yum) when you make a recipe. You can also find us on Facebook, and Pinterest.
Quick Alfredo Sauce
Making authentic alfredo sauce at home is super easy and just takes 10 minutes. You'll love this creamy alfredo sauce recipe and you'll seriously never use jarred sauce again!
Ingredients
- 1 cup Heavy whipping cream
- 3/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup butter, cut into pieces
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ground pepper
- 2 minced garlic cloves
Instructions
- Heat a medium-size saucepan on medium-low. Once the pan is warm, melt the 1/4 cup of butter pieces.
- Stir in the heavy whipping cream, garlic, salt, and pepper. Combine all of the ingredients together.
- Add the shredded parmesan cheese in batches until it's melted, stirring constantly. You don't want to add it all at once since it could clump. This will just take you a minute or two at most to melt.
- Heat the alfredo sauce to a simmer (do not let it boil) and remove. The sauce will continue to thicken upon standing. So easy! Enjoy!
- Serves 4 if you're making fettuccini alfredo and adding it to 8 oz of cooked pasta.
Notes
It is super important that you do not let your sauce come to a boil. At a boiling temperature, the butter could separate from the rest of the sauce or the milk could burn--both of which would cause your sauce to separate.
The recipe can be doubled if you need more than 4 servings with 8 oz of pasta.
The quick and easy alfredo sauce can be served over gluten-free pasta or zoodles if you're following a low-carb or keto diet.
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Nutrition Information
Yield 4 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 369Total Fat 37gSaturated Fat 24gTrans Fat 1gUnsaturated Fat 11gCholesterol 109mgSodium 943mgCarbohydrates 2gFiber 0gSugar 2gProtein 8g
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