How To Make Alfredo Sauce At Home

the best homemade alfredo sauce recipe

My Alfredo sauce recipe is a rich and creamy white sauce made with garlic, butter, heavy cream, and parmesan.

This savory cheesy sauce infuses garlic into the butter and can be used with all kinds of pasta or even on top of vegetables.

Homemade alfredo sauce on spoon and in pan

Why this recipe works:

This rich and creamy sauce can be used in so many dinner recipes to add flavor and richness, plus it is incredibly quick and easy to make.

Only four ingredients are needed
The garlic is cooked low and slow into the butter to really infuse the incredible flavor into every bite
The infused garlic will also turn a beautiful golden brown and give your finished alfredo sauce a gorgeous color
This recipe will make enough sauce for one pound of dried pasta and the recipe can easily be doubled if you need more

How to make Alfredo sauce:

My recipe is quick and easy and involves just a few steps.

You will start by cooking minced garlic with butter over a very low heat. By cooking the garlic and butter over a very low temperature, you're able to extract all of that wonderful flavor from the garlic without it burning. That intense flavor carries through all the way to the finished sauce.
Next you'll add heavy cream. Not all of it. You will reserve some to stir in at the end.
You want this cream to come to a gentle simmer in the garlic butter. Mercy.
To finish the sauce, you'll remove it from the heat add the parmesan and some additional heavy cream.

step by step photos of how to make alfredo sauce

Cooking tips:

Quality ingredients. The higher quality ingredients you use, the better your sauce will be. Make sure the garlic is fresh and, if possible, grown locally. Kerrygold is my butter of choice, but there are so many great ones available. Be sure to buy real authentic aged parmesan cheese imported from Italy.
Press the garlic. When garlic is minced through a garlic press instead of chopped, you expose the maximum amount of surface area. That means you'll extract the most flavor from it.
Grate the parmesan yourself using a microplane. You can certainly use shredded parmesan, but it will not melt properly due to the large size of the pieces and anything that has been added to the cheese to prevent sticking. I highly recommend grating from a block of cheese using a microplane grater. It will make the parmesan melt instantly.
Reheating. This alfredo sauce will thicken as it cools. If it cools too much, it will get too thick. If it gets too hot, it will separate. The trick is to keep it just warm enough. This sauce must be reheated gently either on the stove over low heat, in the microwave on 50% or lower power, or by adding super hot, freshly drained pasta to your sauce.
Substitutions. Many readers ask if whole milk (3-4%) or half and half (10-12% fat) can be used in place of heavy cream (38-40% fat). The answer is YES, although I don't recommend it because you will have a thinner sauce. If you need to make a substitution and feel that the final sauce is too thin, you can always stir in a bit of mascarpone or cream cheese at the end to thicken it.

This rich, creamy, alfredo sauce is not only delicious but it is also versatile and can be used in so many ways!

Use this sauce to smother homemade pasta. Throw some cajun chicken on top and you have an outstanding meal. Or turn it into everyone's favorite Cajun Shrimp Pasta.
What about smothering your favorite veggies, like wilted garlic spinach or sauteed asparagus, with some of this warm cheese sauce. YUM!
You can also use it to make recipes like Chicken Stuffed Shells in Alfredo Sauce, Florentine Chicken Lasagna Rolls, low carb keto chicken crust pizza with creamy alfredo sauce, spinach, onions and mozzarella.

spoonful of creamy alfredo sauce

▢ 4 tablespoons butter
▢ 4 cloves garlic (finely minced or pressed)
▢ 1 ½ cups heavy cream (divided)
▢ 1 ½ cups parmesan cheese (finely grated)

Add butter and garlic to a saute pan and heat over low heat. Allow to cook until the butter is infused with the garlic, about 5 minutes.
Add 1 cup of heavy cream, stir, and allow to come to a simmer. Increase heat to medium, if needed. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Remove from heat and immediately add in parmesan cheese and remaining heavy cream. (Note: the parmesan will easily melt if it was finely grated from a block. If you used pre-grated cheese that is thicker, you may have to continue heating over low heat to get it to melt.) Stir to combine. It will take several minutes for the cheese to melt. It will look goopy at first and then the sauce will be creamy and smooth. If sauce needs to be thinned, add additional heavy cream.
To serve, toss with tossed pasta or use to cover vegetables.

Makes about 3 cups.

Cooking tips:

Quality ingredients. The higher quality ingredients you use, the better your sauce will be. Make sure the garlic is fresh and, if possible, grown locally. Kerrygold is my butter of choice, but there are so many great ones available. Be sure to buy real authentic parmesan cheese imported from Italy.
Press the garlic. When garlic is minced through a garlic press instead of chopped, you expose the maximum amount of surface area. That means you'll extract the most flavor from it.
Grate the parmesan yourself using a microplane. You can certainly use shredded parmesan, but it will not melt properly due to the large size of the pieces and anything that has been added to the cheese to prevent sticking. I highly recommend grating from a block of cheese using a microplane grater. It will make the parmesan melt instantly.
Reheating. This alfredo sauce will thicken as it cools. If it cools too much, it will get too thick. If it gets too hot, it will separate. The trick is to keep it just warm enough. This sauce must be reheated gently either on the stove over low heat, in the microwave on 50% or lower power, or by adding super hot, freshly drained pasta to your sauce.
Substitutions. Many readers ask if whole milk (3-4%) or half and half (10-12% fat) can be used in place of heavy cream (38-40% fat). The answer is YES, although I don't recommend it because you will have a thinner sauce. If you need to make a substitution and feel that the final sauce is too thin, you can always stir in a bit of mascarpone or cream cheese at the end to thicken it.

This recipe was originally published in April 2019 and has been updated with helpful information, ingredient and process photos, as well as recipe tips. Don't worry - the recipe hasn't changed!