Our Homemade Alfredo Sauce is rich and creamy with just 3 main ingredients. Only takes about 5 minutes to make and is perfect for coating pasta, dipping breadsticks, or using as a pizza sauce. People are raving about our recipe for how to make homemade Alfredo sauce and we keep hearing it’s even better than the restaurants!
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If you’ve been personally victimized by a jar of Alfredo sauce, please raise your hand.
Yeah. That stuff is no bueno.
And I’m pretty sure the only reason people use jarred Alfredo sauce is because they think Alfredo sauce from scratch is difficult.
No, friends! Our easy Alfredo sauce recipe is a breeze to make with just a handful of ingredients and about 5 minutes of time. You’re going to FLIP for this creamy, decadent homemade Alfredo sauce.
Not only is this Alfredo sauce recipe super simple to whip up, it seriously rivals any restaurant Alfredo you’ve had, whether it’s the ever popular Olive Garden Alfredo sauce or a more authentic Alfredo sauce from your local Italian joint.
I just know you’re going to love this one!
Love making your own sauce? Try our homemade spaghetti sauce. It’s so much better than a jar!
Expert Tips & Tricks for Perfect Alfredo Sauce:
If you want the best tasting homemade alfredo sauce you can make then you’ll want to keep a few things in mind and follow these tips and tricks!
- Parmesan: It’s the most important ingredient! For the best quality alfredo sauce, use the best quality Parmesan cheese. You don’t have to go to Italy to get it but it wouldn’t hurt to use quality aged and imported Parmesan.
- Shred/Grate It Yourself: Again with the cheese. You know that bottle of dry crumbly grated Parmesan dust at the supermarket? Please don’t use that. Either shred or grate your own for best taste, texture, and melting quality.
- Don’t Overheat: If you try preparing the alfredo sauce at too high of a temperature or cook it for too long or you may end up with a clumpy texture. You want smooth and creamy alfredo sauce, so cook it low and slow.
Ingredient Notes:
Cream & Butter – You’ll heat heavy whipping cream (no substitutes, please) with butter and garlic to warm it through.
Cheese – When you’re making homemade Alfredo sauce you need lots of good quality Parmesan! You’ll want shredded Parmesan cheese, not the dry powdery stuff. We make our Alfredo sauce with cream cheese (just a little!) to add extra richness and creaminess to the sauce.
Seasoning – Salt and pepper, to taste, is all you’ll need.
What Readers are Saying!
“I started using this recipe over a year ago and I haven’t purchased a jar of Alfredo since. This is by far the best Alfredo sauce I’ve ever tasted!! Thank you so much for sharing this.” – Teesha
How To Make Alfredo Sauce From Scratch:
Heat: Start by melting the butter and cream together with a little blob of cream cheese (optional – see notes below). I do a garlic Alfredo sauce by adding in a teaspoon of minced garlic to the butter and cream while it’s heating. The garlic flavor is perfect with this creamy pasta sauce!
Cheese: When you’ve finished heating the butter and cream remove the pan from the heat and stir in the shredded Parmesan cheese! Keep stirring until it forms a smooth sauce.
Season: We sprinkle in a bit of salt and pepper to taste.
Serving Suggestions:
This Alfredo sauce recipe makes enough to generously coat one pound of pasta, but we usually reserve a half cup of the sauce for dipping our breadsticks in. Serve this sauce/pasta with one (or more!) of these sides:
- Air Fryer Breadsticks
- Tuscan White Bean Soup
- Ham and Bean Soup
- Marinated Cheese and Olives
- Tuscan Roasted Vegetables
You can also add a variety of ingredients and proteins to your pasta. Grilled chicken is the perfect addition to fettuccine alfredo, but our shrimp alfredo and tortellini alfredo are also very popular around here.
Alfredo Sauce with Cream Cheese:
This recipe originally did NOT call for cream cheese – it was just butter, cream, and Parmesan (and a little garlic, for flavor). I’ll always stand by the fact that this was a delicious authentic Alfredo sauce that just works!
If you don’t love cream cheese, just leave it out.
But, we did start adding in a couple of ounces of cream cheese to our Alfredo, because it does add an extra layer of creamy richness and flavor. We’re hooked, but we wouldn’t hesitate to make this sauce without the cream cheese if we were out, either. 😉
Garlic Alfredo Sauce:
We’re obsessed with garlic, so we add just a little bit to this recipe…it really makes the best Alfredo sauce!
We just add the garlic straight in with the cream and butter as it’s warming to let the garlic flavors infuse the sauce. So simple and delicious!
FAQs:
Alfredo sauce is a simple cream sauce made of heavy cream, butter, and Parmesan cheese.
While you can store this recipe in the fridge, it is best served fresh. It’ll last for 3-4 days tightly covered, but does separate a bit and get oily upon reheating.
This is a gluten-free Alfredo sauce, but many recipes do call for flour.
Yes! This is a keto Alfredo sauce recipe, because there is no flour. Of course, if you’ll want to avoid serving with pasta to keep the carb count low. It’s delicious over broccoli, though!
More Italian Inspired Favorites:
- Ravioli Lasagna
- Baked Tortellini
- Baked Spaghetti
- Chicken Parmesan Sliders
- Italian Pasta Salad
- Crockpot Lasagna
Homemade Alfredo Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 cup butter
- 2 ounces cream cheese
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 2 cups shredded Parmesan cheese
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- Add the cream, butter, creaeam cheese, a and garlic to a sauce pan over medium heat and heat, stirring often, until the cream cheese has fully melted and the sauce is hot.
- Turn off the heat and whisk in the Parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper.
- Continue whisking until cheese has fully melted and sauce is smooth and creamy.
- Serve immediately.
Tips & Notes:
Nutrition Information:
This recipe was originally published in March 2018. It was updated with new photos in March 2022. Original photos below.
Sofia Boelkens says
This looks wonderful, just wondering what is the serving?
Karly says
Nutrition info is based on this serving 8.
Lisa@eatfrysmith says
I’m really bad at cooking but I’m make sure that I did it.The easy way to make sauce. Thank you so much for this
Cynthia V. says
This was absolutely delicious, made it last night and it was a hit with everyone at the table. Whatever was leftover was later mopped up with bread sticks. My husband even loved it and he hates Alfredo sauces. Made some tweaks to this but not because it wasn’t great, I just prefer a garlicky/ earthy tasting sauce so I added teaspoon and a half more garlic and sauteed the garlic with some finely diced onion and added a pinch of nutmeg to the cream which I used a extra 4oz. because my husband’s dislike for anything sauce that’s to thick . Once it was finished I stirred in a tablespoon of chopped parsley.
Karly says
Sounds delicious! Glad it was a hit.
sanchez says
This sauce makes me craving. I’m thinking many combinations with it. Can I put 2 and a half cup of parmesan? Or 1 cup of parmesan with 1 of cheddar?
Karly says
I haven’t tried it with these changes, but I think it’d be hard to mess up. 🙂
Carolyn Patricia says
This was delicious!! It was a wee bit salty so I added extra cream…anf it solved the problem.
I used Aldi grated Parmesan and I am sure if I grated my own it would have been even better!
Thanks!
C
Anthony Allen says
That so so amazing! Thanks for your recipe.
Adja Sow says
Why can’t it be Hispanic pepper instead of black or white pepper? Hmmmmmmm????
Wolf says
Nice try. Take your out-of-place humor somewhere else, man
syd says
The flavor is amazing! I added italian seasoning. The sauce breaks though, i didnt want to add any flour. Ill try it again, great flavors, thanks.
Karly says
I haven’t had any issues with the sauce breaking. Did you follow the recipe as written? It shouldn’t need any flour. 🙂
Evie says
Could I use 1 c. Parmesan, 1/2 c. Cheddar and 1/2 c. Mozzarella? Or 1 c. Parm and 1 c. Mozzarella? We don’t have quite enough Parm. 🙁
Karly says
I haven’t tried this with other cheese subs but I think it’d work fine! Flavor won’t be quite the same but the sauce should still come out smooth and creamy.
Maria says
This Alfredo is so easy to make and it is amazingly delicious.
Karly says
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed!
Dee says
Cannot wait to try tonight!
KIMBERLY L BROWN says
Sorry, but you can’t be too lazy to make a roux. It is better when reheating, but you have to reheat slowly, stirring often, without breaking the sauce. Also, If you’re going to claim better than olive garden and then omit milk and romano cheese as well as the flour, well that’s just false advertising.
Karly says
I’m not being lazy at all. I’m making alfredo the traditional way, which I believe is better than Olive Garden’s.
Cecilia says
must. have. the. recipe. for. the. bread. sticks.
now.
going to try this alfredo tonight, looks sooooo yummy!!!
Karly says
Ha! They’re the frozen kind from New York Bakery. You can find them at any grocery store. 😉
Kathleen says
I made this for dinner tonight and hubby says it is far better than Olive Garden. I made only one adaption….
I used 1 cup Parmesan, 3/4 cup Asiago and 1/4 cup mild Cheddar.
I served it over crab/lobster ravioli.
Hubby says to thank you for the recipe….. I thank you also.
Karly says
Yay! So glad it was a hit! 🙂
Barbara Kennedy says
The sauce was smooth and delicious and when I added it to saute vegetables ( red pepper and onion, it went lumpy and stringy. I added the linguine too this and stirred well and a large piece of parmesan cheese came out on the fork. What did I do wrong?
Karly says
Hmm, I’m really not sure! Are you sure all of the cheese was melted before you added it to your vegetables?