Make Restaurant Style Alfredo Sauce at Home for Fraction of Cost

by katiem2

Save money make delicious alfredo sauce at home, it is simple and cost less to make a big batch for the entire family than to buy in restaurants recipe and pictures included

My family loves fettuccine alfredo so much we have been known to order it as take out from Red Lobster or Olive Garden. Both my thrifty nature and the pride of doing it myself urged me to learn how. Finally, I have cracked the code, got it down to a science, perfected the art and flat out hacked mouthwatering Alfredo sauce. My homemade sauce is easy, cost effective and goes great with so many foods. I bet (like me) you will feel empowered and liberated once you too become the master at making alfredo sauce. Warning: once people taste this they will bug you senseless for more and the recipe. Do yourself a favor, share this blog with them. I’ve made it easy with pictures to illustrate.

Ingredients to Make Alfredo Sauce

How to Make Alfredo Sauce

The ingredients to make alfredo sauce is simple and goes as follows.

  • Shredded Parmesan Cheese
  • Heavy Cream
  • Real Butter
  • Garlic
  • Salt and Pepper
  • Pasta 
  • Philadelphia Cream Cheese (secret ingredient)

What You Need to Make Alfredo Sauce

Ingredients to Make Alfredo Sauce
Ingredients to Make Alfredo Sauce

How to Make Homemade Alfredo Sauce

Step 1

The trick to making a great alfredo sauce is combining all ingredients in the order described and stirring only occasionally with a chopstick slow and gently to avoid causing the cheese to clump together. 

Do not whisk, whip or beat the ingredients, this is a slow melt and merge process 

Add 1/2 Stick Real Butter to Crock Pot

Cut butter in chunks
Melting Butter
Melting Butter

Add 1/2 Stick Real Butter to Pot

Use small warming crock pot

Plug in warming crock and add butter. If you do not have a warming crock pot you will want one, they come in handy.

Why Use Warming Crock Pot

I have tried other methods of heating homemade Alfredo sauce all of which proved to be very difficult to control the level of heat which makes it clumpy.  I found the crock pot warming pot, with no controls, to be the perfect temperature. It gently melts all the ingredients together without clumping. 

Add 3 to 4 Cloves of Garlic

Step 2

Add three to four cloves of fresh garlic to warming butter.

I like using whole cloves making it easy to remove the garlic before serving, this leaves only the wonderful aroma and flavor. 

Since I made this blog I have started using roasted garlic. Simply cut the top off a bunch of garlic, set upright in oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or to liking.  Hold garlic upside down and gently squeeze, the garlic easily falls out. 

Add as much as you like to sauce. 

Add Garlic

Add Garlic
Add Garlic

Add Grated Parmesan Cheese

Step 3

Dump a 12 to 16 ounce container of grated fresh parmesan cheese on top of the melted butter and garlic. Do not stir, simply allow it to rest. 

How Much Parmesan Cheese to Use in Aflredo

The trick to getting enough cheese to create that trademark taste and creaminess is adding just enough cream afterwards.  

I often add more or less cheese depending on how many people I will be feeding.

The way I make sure to achieve a thick creaming sauce every time is to add the correct ration of heavy cream to cheese.

This ration is simply to add the heavy cream slowly allowing it to drain down in and around the loosely added cheese until you can no longer see the cheese. I mean you can see it but it is covered in cream to the point that it is on the verge of disappearing.

Add Parmesan Cheese

Fresh Grated Parmesan Cheese
Add Parmesan  Cheese
Add Parmesan Cheese

Adding the Heavy Cream to Alfredo Sauce

Step 4

As outlined above you add enough cream to cover the cheese.  I always buy extra cream insuring I have what is needed. Do not substitute milk for cream, it will not work. 

Adding Heavy Cream to Alfredo Sauce

adding cream to alfredo sauce
adding cream to alfredo sauce

How Much to Salt Alfredo Sauce

Step 5

I add about one teaspoon of sea or himalayan salt to my alfredo.  This is a personal preference, add one and wait to add more later after all is melted and ready for a taste test.  

How Much to Salt Alfredo Sauce

salting alfredo sauce
salting alfredo sauce

Making Homemade Alfredo Sauce

Step 6

Now is the time to gently fold all the ingredients together. I found evenly mixing and coating the cheese works best. 

Please understand this is to be done before everything is heated, the ingredients will be cold during this step. It doesn't require much.

Note: Adding the refrigerated cheese and cream cools the butter down.

How to Mix Ingredients for Homemade Alfredo Sauce

How to Mix Ingredients for Homemade Alfredo Sauce
How to Mix Ingredients for Homemade A...

Making Homemade Alfredo Sauce

Step 7

Once you have gently mixed the cheese coating it in the butter and cream put the lid on the warming crock pot and leave it to melt.

This takes about 15 to 20 minutes. It is at this time you can remove lid and stir gently with chop stick.

Stir only enough to keep the ingredients evenly distributed.

You don't want the cheese to ball up, place chop stick in middle of pot and gently move toward perimeter of pot. 

Warming Alfredo Sauce Correctly

Remember you are not cooking this sauce yet warming the ingredients till melted together into a creamy sauce.

This is a delicate process but when done correctly it can remain in the warmer throughout the entire meal. 

After the gentle stir replace lid to pot and allow to warm another 15 minutes. After this time it should mix together brilliantly. It is now ready to serve over pasta, chicken and veggies. 

Secret - If you find your sauce simply isn't thick enough add either chunks cut from the wrapped sort or teaspoons from the tub type of cream cheese. This will thicken it up nicely.  Allow the philly cream cheese to melt before stirring, this may take around 5 additional minutes. This does not change the spectacular flavor. 

Proper Cooking Technique for Alfredo Sauce

Warming Alfredo
Warming Alfredo

Finished Product

After dinner I add left over pasta to remaining sauce and this is the result
Delicious Fettuccine Alfredo
Delicious Fettuccine Alfredo

The Pasta I Use for Fettuccine Alfredo

Fettuccine Alfredo
Fettuccine Alfredo

Can You Make Good Homemade Alfredo

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No, I have tried and never got it right!
Belinda on 02/11/2018

not until I found this easy Alfredo sauce recipe, it is so good and simple

sandyspider on 02/01/2018

I am in heaven!. Love Alfredo sauce and pasta.

Belinda on 10/11/2017

it is crazy hard, gonna try this. You've mentioned the many ways I have already failed. Your instructions make sense.

Yes, peice of cake I do it all the time!
DerdriuMarriner on 08/22/2018

Butter and Parmesan sauce is part of my north Italian heritage even though your Alfredo sauce recipe is beautiful. Thank you for the walk-through images and information.

Updated: 10/09/2017, katiem2
 
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What do you think about giving this Alfredo Recipe a go?

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katiem2 on 11/14/2018

Derdriu, Glad to hear you used the recipe and it was enjoyed by others, thanks for sharing good food that warms the soul.

DerdriuMarriner on 11/13/2018

katiem2, Second visit and the learning never ends. I love your sourdough videos but it worked having this up on the screen and following the recipe. The final product, although not quite as photogenic as yours, was a crowd-pleaser.

katiem2 on 10/19/2018

DerdriuMarriner, Thank you for the lovely compliment. I don't have much luck with the recipe modules, no doubt much to Chef's dismay. My recipes seem to be to lengthy or include more instructions than allowed in those modules. I don't know the calorie content, which is required etc. I eat and cook what taste good never worrying about the calorie count. I do not each such rich fattening dishes often but on occasions. This is a really good and easy recipe. I like black pepper and always add it to mine once plated. My daughter does not like black pepper, hence its absence. Thank you for taking the time to comment on my recipe, I value your time and am very grateful for the volume you extend to me.

DerdriuMarriner on 02/02/2018

KatieM2, Thank you for letting us see your Fettucine Alfredo turn out. Do you not have one of the recipe modules that includes a one- to five-star rating in addition to the voting at the end of the article? Yours is of course 5 stars. I like to use black and white pepper; the two together shouldn't alter the taste in any unauthentic way, right?

sandyspider on 02/01/2018

Would love to try this.

katiem2 on 10/16/2017

Margielynn, It sure does, Alfredo is one of those decadent pleasures that tops the list of fattening indulgences. Recent investigative research has uncovered restaurant dishes contain far more fat and calories than indicated on the menu. Making such dishes at home helps us to better regulate the fat and calorie content when we just gotta have Alfredo.

Guest on 10/10/2017

I love Fettuccine Alfredo! It packs a few calories!!! Beautiful page, thanks for posting!

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