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. Once you make this recipe, you will never again buy a jar of alfredo sauce from the store again!

Table of contents
Why This Is the Best Alfredo Sauce
This rich and creamy sauce can be used in so many dinner recipes to add flavor and richness.
- Only four ingredients are needed: The main ingredients are the only ingredients! The complete list includes butter, garlic cloves, heavy whipping cream, and real parmesan cheese.
- Quick and easy to make: If you're searching for an easy alfredo sauce recipe, look no further. This is an amazing recipe.
- Infused garlic: The fresh garlic is cooked low and slow into the melted 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.
- Makes just the right amount: 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
The best homemade alfredo sauce recipe is quick and easy to make! Even if this is your first time making this delicious cream sauce, you will get perfect results.
- Infuse garlic in butter: Melt butter in large shallow pan over a very low heat. Add minced garlic and stir frequently. 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. It will, however, turn a wonderful golden brown color. That intense flavor carries through all the way to the finished sauce.
- Add heavy cream: You will not add all of it. A small amount will be reserved to stir in at the end. You want this cream to come to a gentle simmer in the garlic butter. Mercy.
- Add parmesan: To finish the sauce, you'll remove it from the heat and stir in the grated parmesan as well as the remaining heavy cream.

Cooking Tips for Perfect Results
- Use Quality ingredients. The higher the 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. Additionally, any ingredients added to the cheese to prevent sticking may interfere with its ability to easily melt. I highly recommend grating from a block of cheese using a microplane grater. It will make the parmesan melt instantly.
- Additional ingredients or seasonings: No other ingredients are needed, however, you could always add black pepper, salt, onion powder, or Italian seasoning. A great way to make this cream sauce even richer is by mixing in an egg yolk (similar to a Carbonara sauce).
How to Thin Alfredo Sauce
The secret to thinning cheese sauces is to mix in small amounts of starchy pasta water. If you are making Alfredo Sauce for pasta, simply use a measuring cup to scoop out about a cup of the salted pasta water just before you drain the pasta. Then, if the finished sauce seems too thick, stir in small amounts of this starchy water until you have the desired consistency.
Storage Instructions
Any leftover alfredo sauce can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator. It is best used within a few days.
How to Reheat Alfredo Sauce
This alfredo sauce will thicken as it cools. Reheating Alfredo sauce can be a tricky process because if it gets too hot, it will separate.
This sauce must be reheated gently. There are three ways to do this properly.
- Stovetop: The sauce can be added to a saucepan and gently heated over very low heat. Be sure to stir the sauce frequently so that it gets heated at the same rate. As soon as it is heated through, remove the sauce from the heat source.
- Microwave: Leftover Alfredo sauce or pasta coated in Alfredo sauce can be heated in the microwave. Use 50% power in 1-minute increments. After each minute, stir the sauce, and continue heating this way until it is heated through.
- Super hot pasta: If you let leftover Alfredo sauce warm to room temperature, you can actually add super hot, freshly drained pasta to your sauce. The residual heat should be enough to warm the sauce.
Ingredient Substitutions
- Heavy cream substitutions: Many readers ask if part-skim milk (less than 1% fat), whole milk (3-4% fat) 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 due to the lower fat content. If you need to make this 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. You can also thicken the sauce by mixing a tablespoon of modified corn starch with a tablespoon of milk and whisking it into the finished sauce.
- Butter substitutions: If needed, butter can be replaced by olive oil. For best results, use a high quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
- Garlic substitutions: The infused garlic really does impart so much flavor, but if you are out of fresh garlic, you make use garlic powder in its place.
- Parmesan cheese substitutions: Authentic Italian alfredo sauce must have Parmigiano Reggiano, however you can also use Romano cheese or a parmesan/Romano blend.

Best Ways to Enjoy Homemade Alfredo Sauce
This rich, creamy, alfredo sauce is not only delicious but it is also versatile and can be used for so many delicious recipes!
- Use this sauce to smother homemade pasta. Throw some blackened chicken on top and you have an outstanding version of chicken fettuccine alfredo. 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!
- Parmesan chicken is traditionally covered in marinara sauce, but how delicious would it be if it were smothered in Alfredo sauce instead? You could always balance the richness with zucchini noodles. The possibilities are endless.
- Use it as a dipping sauce for fries or even better, zucchini fries.

Alfredo Sauce Recipe
CLICK TO PLAY RECIPE VIDEO
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 4 cloves garlic (finely minced or pressed)
- 1 ½ cups heavy cream (divided)
- 1 ½ cups parmesan cheese (finely grated)
Instructions
- 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.
Notes
- 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.
NUTRITION INFORMATION
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!
Terry
Excellent easy yummy!
Thank you
Greg s
Easy and good. I added fresh made pesto served with chic tenders on linguine.
Gail
Was looking for a recipe to use up the heavy cream in my fridge and found this. It was delicious and so easy to make. I did add some salt and pepper and threw in some imitation crab. Thanks so much!
Katherine Kelley
This recipe is wonderful! Infusing the butter with the garlic made it stand out from other recipes I've tried. I didn't have a wedge of Parmesan, but used Kroger Prime Selection shaved Parmesan & it turned up perfect.
MiMi
I have a question...how long does it keep in the fridge?
Krissy
I would use within 3-5 days
Cindy
Made this Alfredo sauce for the first time. Easy and super delicious!! I'll never used jar sauce again.
Robert
We tried this sauce and it is amazing! Everyone loves it and we are making it again tonight. Thank you for sharing.
Julie
I was skeptical. Now I’m looking at an empty pasta bowl and a full, happy family. This was excellent and quick.
Anita
Family loved it and that is all that matters. Trying with parsley next time. This is a great recipe
Rick V
I just made this sauce.
It was so fast, easy, and delicious !!!
Worked so well with 4 cheese tortellini.
The only thing I did differently was I added....sun dried tomatoes.
I rinsed them in hot water to get rid of all the oil then chopped and added to the sauce near the end.
This sauce will make anyone look like a chef.
Give it a try tonight.
Cheers Rick V
Kimmi
I used this sauce recipe for Vegetable Lasagna. To get more sauce I added some cream cheese, and sour cream. Once the sauce was thick enough, I added mushrooms, shredded zucchini, and spinach. Then I just put it together like you would with any other lasagna recipe. Used the ricotta cheese/spinach for my filling. Then used shredded mozzarella in between layers and on top. Very delicious, I impressed myself!!
Beatty
Fabulous!
The other half of my stick of butter decided to jump right in!
Oops, but sooooo good.
Kelley M Wilson
This is my first attempt at making Alfredo sauce - it was easy and delicious!! I'll be making this often
Kristina
I made the Alfredo Sauce for my family last night. They loved it and it was an instant hit. This recipe was very easy to make and my family loved it. The sauce was thick and creamy. I used salted butter and did not need to add additional salt for flavor.
Ms. Mela
Easy and full of flavor 😋
Meghan
Can I make an abundance and freeze it? Or will I have a problem reheating it?
Krissy
Alfredo can be tricky. I think freezing and reheating will work. Just thaw in the refrigerator and heat low and slow. This is one of those recipes I just prefer to make fresh.
Lindsey
Do you use a whole box of pasta?
Krissy
Yes. The sauce should be enough for about a pound of dry pasta.
Betsy
Made this for my grandson who is learning to cook. “AMAZING” was his description. I agree!
Corene
Is heavy cream the same as heavy whipping cream?
Krissy
yes. I buy the full half gallon at Costco, but you can buy much smaller sizes at any grocery store.
Sarah Beth Cera
The nutrition information is so helpful! Thank you for that—but how much is a serving?
Krissy
roughly 4 tablespoons each serving