Homemade Alfredo Sauce

This is the Alfredo sauce recipe I’ve made more times than I can count. It’s just butter, garlic, heavy cream and real Parmesan, it’s ready in about 15 minutes, and it’s rich, silky and full of garlic flavor. Never buy a store-bought jar again!

My Cajun Shrimp Pasta, Shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo, Asparagus Mushroom Fettuccine Alfredo, classic Fettuccine Alfredo, and Blackened Chicken Alfredo also use this Alfredo Sauce as the base. I also highly recommend serving this sauce with homemade pasta!

Want to save this recipe?

Enter your email below and I’ll send it straight to your inbox. Plus you’ll get great recipe ideas from me every week!

Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.

Email *

Post Title Permalink

Save Recipe

Why This Is the Best Alfredo Sauce

There are a lot of Alfredo sauce recipes out there. Here’s why this is the one I keep coming back to.

Easy to Make

Any kind of pasta dish is a hit in my house, and when I need a quick and easy dinner idea on a busy weeknight, this Alfredo Sauce recipe is one of my favorites. Add some sliced cooked chicken breasts or grilled shrimp and you have a satisfying meal in no time!

Garlic-Infused Butter

The garlic cooks slowly in the butter over low heat before anything else goes in the pan, so the butter soaks up all of that garlic flavor before the cream is added.

Keep the heat low. You want the garlic soft and fragrant and just starting to turn golden. If it gets dark, it turns bitter.

Versatility

Toss it with fettuccine, pour it over steamed vegetables, or use it with homemade gnocchi or four cheese ravioli. It obviously pairs incredibly well with homemade fresh pasta to make Fettuccine Alfredo.

Ingredients for Homemade Alfredo Sauce

This Alfredo sauce is made with just four simple ingredients, so use the best ones you can get.

• Butter. I use salted butter for almost everything, this sauce included. Unsalted works too. Just taste it at the end and add a pinch of salt if it needs it.
• Fresh garlic. Four cloves, finely minced or pressed.
• Heavy cream. This is what makes the sauce thick and silky. Heavy cream and heavy whipping cream are the same thing.
• Parmesan cheese. Buy a block of real Parmigiano Reggiano and grate it yourself. More on why in the tips below.

Full amounts are in the recipe card below.

Ingredient Substitutions

I have made this recipe countless times and highly encourage you to make it exactly as written, but I know that sometimes recipe alterations are necessary depending on ingredient availability. Should you need to make a modification, these are my recommendations.

• Heavy Cream: Heavy cream has at least 36% fat, and that fat is what gives this sauce its body. Plain whipping cream (30 to 36% fat) works but makes a slightly thinner sauce. Whole milk (about 3.5% fat), half and half (10 to 12% fat) or evaporated milk can also be used, although I don’t recommend them because you will have a much thinner sauce due to the lower fat content. Skip skim and 1% milk. If your sauce turns out too thin, see the fixes under Common Problems below.
• Butter: Replace butter with high-quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
• Garlic: Fresh garlic is recommended, but frozen or jarred minced garlic will work as well. Garlic powder can be used as a substitute, but it won’t impart the same infused garlic taste.
• Parmesan Cheese: Authentic Italian Alfredo sauce demands Parmigiano Reggiano, but Romano cheese or a parmesan/Romano blend can also work. Pecorino Romano is saltier, so taste before you add any salt.

How to Make Alfredo Sauce

Step 1: Infuse Garlic in Butter

Melt the butter and add the garlic. Begin by melting half a stick of butter over low heat, then add the minced garlic and stir frequently for about 5 minutes.

Step 2: Add Heavy Cream

Pour in all of the cream. Give it a good stir and allow it to come to a gentle simmer. Increase the heat to medium, if needed. Cook for about 5 minutes and stir it occasionally.

Step 3: Stir in Parmesan

Stir in the Parmesan. Remove the sauce from the heat, then stir in the finely grated parmesan cheese. It will look a little goopy at first. Keep stirring for a few minutes and it melts into a silky, rich sauce.

Step 4: Toss With Hot Pasta

Serve it right away. Toss the sauce with hot, freshly drained pasta and dig in.

Common Alfredo Sauce Problems and How to Fix Them

Almost every problem readers tell me about comes down to the cheese or the heat.

• Grainy or clumpy sauce. This is almost always the cheese. Bagged pre-shredded and pre-grated Parmesan is coated so it doesn’t clump in the bag, and that coating keeps it from melting smoothly. Grate your own from a block (see the tips above) and add it off the heat. If pre-grated is all you have, run it through the food processor or blender first, and you may have to keep the sauce over low heat a little longer to get it to melt.
• Greasy or separated sauce. It got too hot. Cream sauces break when they boil hard or get too hot. Take the pan off the heat and whisk in a splash of warm cream, a little at a time, to try to bring it back together.
• Too thin. This sauce shouldn’t need to be thickened if made as directed, but if you want to amp up the creaminess, a spoonful of mascarpone, cream cheese or sour cream will all work. You can also stir in a little more Parmesan.
• Too thick. To thin this sauce, simply add more heavy cream. You can also scoop out a cup of salted pasta water just before draining the pasta and stir it into the sauce as needed to reach the desired thickness.
• Bland or a little sour. Add salt. Any time something tastes too sour, I add more salt and it tends to balance it all out.

★★★★★

“I’ve tried other Alfredo recipes and my family has had complaints about them being too salty or too thick always something that they didn’t like about them. But I made this Alfredo tonight and they have zero complaints and I don’t either. It tasted divine and so easy to make. My new and only go to recipe for Alfredo sauce!”

Lacey, reader review

How Much Pasta Does This Alfredo Sauce Cover

My recipe yields just the right amount of cheesy cream sauce for a pound of fettuccine noodles, but you can easily double it for larger gatherings. If you double it, double everything, butter included.

One batch makes about 3 cups of sauce. A typical serving of pasta is about 2 ounces dry, so one batch covers about 8 servings of pasta.

The recipe card counts a serving as 1/4 cup of sauce (12 per batch), and that’s what the nutrition is based on. If you like your pasta swimming in sauce, you’ll eat more than that, and the calories go up with it.

Customize Your Sauce

While this Alfredo sauce is perfect on its own, you can add black pepper, salt, onion powder, or Italian seasoning to suit your taste. 

Readers also love a pinch of nutmeg, some Asiago with the Parmesan, or a little homemade Cajun seasoning for a kick.

Fresh parsley always makes a nice garnish on any creamy white sauce.

How to Store Alfredo Sauce

Store any leftover Alfredo sauce in an airtight container in the refrigerator and use it within 3 to 4 days. It firms up a lot as it chills, and that’s normal.

Can you freeze it? I have never frozen it. I only eat it fresh. Freezing a cream sauce like this is safe, but it tends to separate and turn grainy when it thaws, so I don’t recommend it.

Making it ahead: The sauce only takes 15 minutes, so I make it right before dinner. If you need to make it ahead, refrigerate it and reheat it very gently (see below).

Keeping it warm for a party: A slow cooker on the warm setting works. Don’t turn it up any higher, keep the sauce at 140°F or above while it sits out, and stir it now and then.

How to Reheat Alfredo Sauce

The microwave will often kill a cream-based sauce like this, so the best bet is to reheat it gently over low heat on the stove.

• Stovetop: Heat it over very low heat in a saucepan, stirring frequently until warmed through.
• Microwave: If you have to use the microwave, use very low power (50% or less) in 1-minute increments, stirring each time until heated.
• Super Hot Pasta: Let the sauce sit out for 20 to 30 minutes to take the chill off, then add it to freshly drained, hot pasta. The heat from the pasta will warm the sauce perfectly.

Is This Authentic Alfredo Sauce?

It is said that the original recipe came from Alfredo di Lelio who lived in Rome over 100 years ago. I struggle with how impressive this was, because the original version was simply butter and parmesan. That’s no different than how I used to make my “buttered noodles” when I was ten years old.

My version is definitely an American-style Alfredo sauce. A little garlic and some heavy cream definitely takes “buttered noodles” to a whole different level.

Can I Use This Sauce in Lasagna or a Baked Pasta?

If this sauce gets too hot, it will get gross. For a baked dish, I would bake everything without the sauce and then toss it in the sauce just before serving.

Why Is Homemade Alfredo Thinner Than Jarred Sauce?

Jarred Alfredo is usually thickened with starches or gums. This one has no flour at all, so it looks a little loose in the pan, but it thickens as it cools and clings to the pasta.

More Alfredo Recipes

This sauce is the base for some of my favorite pasta dinners.

Cajun Shrimp Pasta

Blackened Chicken Alfredo Pasta

Fettuccine Alfredo

Shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo