Easy Homemade Alfredo Sauce Recipe
This easy homemade Alfredo sauce is great with pasta, veggies, chicken, gratins... You can adjust quantities to your taste. For example, more cheese for a thicker sauce. Keep in mind the sauce thickens more as it cools.
This is enough for 1 pound of dried pasta (454 g) and 1 1/4 pounds (565 g) of fresh pasta.
Ingredients
- | ½ Cups Unsalted butter
- 1 Cup Heavy cream
- 1 ¼ Cups Grated parmesan cheese up to 2 cups, see notes
- 1 Minced garlic clove (or 2 garlic cloves)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1/8 Tsp Grated nutmeg optional
- Fresh or dried aromatic herbs optional
Instructions
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Melt butter in a small saucepan, over medium heat.
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Add cream, stir and bring to a boil.
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Reduce heat, add garlic, spices and dried herbs if using (if you're using fresh herbs like parsley, it's better to add them in at the end).
Stir and cook on low heat, about 2 minutes.
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Add cheese and let it melt on low heat, stirring so it doesn't burn. If you want to add 2 cups of cheese, first add half let it melt in. Then add the other half of cheese.
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That's all! Your Alfredo sauce is ready to use! 🙂 Bon appetit.
Recipe Notes
GARLIC:
You can melt the butter with the garlic before adding cream. But to prevent burning it (burned garlic is awful), it's better to add it with the cream.
You can substitute the garlic with 1 minced shallot if you like it better.
PARMESAN CHEESE:
If possible, use parmesan cheese that you grate yourself.
And for the grated cheese to melt faster in the sauce, use the finest grid of your grater. A zester is perfect with this kind of cheese if you have one.
Your Alfredo sauce thickness depends on how much cheese you use. With a 2:1 cheese to cream ratio, your sauce is thicker.
CREAM :
When you use cream, even if you only add 1 cup of cheese, your sauce will still be thick. For a lighter version, substitute some of the cream with whole milk. If your sauce is too thin for your taste, add a little cornstarch to thicken it.