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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 homemade 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!
Recipe 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.
Dottie Schwemlein says
Do you have a recipe for homemade hamburger buns?
Karly says
Hi Dottie! I used to – it’s actually the first recipe I ever shared (hence the name), but it was over 12 years ago and just no longer up to my standards so I removed it. I haven’t finished perfecting it, but plan to share it again one of these days!
Dottie Schwemlein says
I have tried so many of your recipes & loved all of them. I’m definitely a big fan. Thank you so much.
Karly says
Thank you, Dottie! I appreciate it! 🙂
Tiffany says
I tell everyone about this recipe! It’s amazing! Is it possible to make a large batch and can it?
Karly says
Hi Tiffany! So glad you like the recipe! I don’t have any experience with canning, so I really have no idea what the process would be or if it would be safe.
Kristen says
My fiance and I had this a week ago, and we loved it!! Funny story though… his birthday is tomorrow, and since we’re going out to dinner with his family today, I offered to cook for him tomorrow. His request? Alfredo again, please. So I look up the recipe again, and to my slight confusion, it has changed and added cream cheese! Reading through again and looking at the date of revision, this change was made since the first time. Unfortunately we will not be adding the cream cheese this time since my fiance HATES it and seems to detect just the slightest addition of it, but the original recipe was FANTASTIC and just that much more simple. Thanks!
Karly says
Hi Kristen! Glad you figured out what was going! The recipe is just the same aside from the cream cheese, so you won’t need to make any other changes to get that original version! 🙂
Happy Birthday to your fiance!
Susannah Stapp says
The Olive Garden sauce does not have garlic “chunks” in it. It is perfectly smooth, which is the way I like it, but it has garlic flavor. What do they use that doesn’t leave the bitter bites of garlic? I hate biting into those. Thank you!
Karly says
We use the minced garlic in a jar – it’s already fairly soft and then as it heats it just softens up more. We don’t notice biting into garlic at all in this recipe. You could use fresh garlic and a garlic press as well. But, you could definitely use a teaspoon or two of garlic powder in place of the minced garlic.
Christine Costa says
Your recipe calls for 2 oz cream cheese but when I go to print the recipe, it doesn’t show the cream cheese; in fact, it is left out of the recipe completely. Just wondering why?
Karly says
Sorry about that! Sometimes the internet serves up old cached versions of a page and that’s what was happening here. I cleared the cache and all seems good now. 🙂
Sunshine Amthauer says
My husband does the cooking. He doesn’t know I have “gifted” him. A copy on his computer and pillow on his bed. (Sometimes he doesn’t read his emails. The fettuccine and picture looks yummy. I think we will add some shrimp to it!
Karly says
Haha, love to see his face when he finds a recipe sitting on his pillow! 🙂
Hope you both enjoy this one!
Joann Gonzales says
It was so easy and absolutely delicious. I added chicken and broccoli; and it looked like it came from a restaurant! The only thing, my cheese clumped a little bit so not sure what I did wrong. I watched your video. I did stir in a little at a time to begin with so maybe that was it. I’m so sorry that I didn’t take a picture; couldn’t put my fork down!
Karly says
Hi Joann! I’m so glad you enjoyed it! My guess is that the sauce cooled a bit too much to melt the cheese if you were adding it in slowly. You can always briefly turn the heat back on while whisking to warm it back up. 🙂
Megan Grace says
First time I made this recipe I completely didn’t see the cream cheese so I never added it in. This was in February 2021 fast forward to 2 months ago I saw the cream cheese.. While still delicious, my family loves it without! Give it a try if you haven’t yet!
Karly says
The recipe didn’t used to call for cream cheese, but we had so many readers saying they add it that we gave it a try and found we liked it a bit better. But yes, it’s totally delicious without too! 🙂
Miriam says
Hi! What can I add if the sauce is thick? More heavy whipping cream, milk, or pasta lqd.?
Karly says
The sauce should be pretty thick and the water clinging to the pasta will help it coat the pasta nicely. But if you want to thin it first, I’d add more cream.
Teesha says
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.
Karly says
Yay! Love hearing that! 🙂
Chely says
Randomly picked this recipe and boy was it a winner. Love it! My family loves it too!
Karly says
So glad you all enjoyed it!
Mimi says
No more jarred Alfredo sauces in my house. My 11 year old kept saying “mmm mmm mmm” while he was eating, high praise from a kid who is a bit picky.
Karly says
Aw, so glad the kiddo enjoyed this one! 🙂
Connie says
I tried your recipe tonight for Fettuccine Alfredo with chicken and broccoli and we all LOVED it. It’s much smoother than other recipes I’ve tried that called for flour and other added ingredients. It’s so simple and delicious. This one is a keeper!
Karly says
Thanks so much, Connie! So glad you gave it a try!
I y says
Can you freeze this sauce
Karly says
No, I don’t think it would reheat well.
Holly D. says
The BOMB! I added chopped onions and garlic to the butter sauteed them then added the cream. So freaking good! Thank you!
Karly says
Sounds delicious!
Jackson Putnam says
You meantion that this is authentic Alfredo sauce but from everything that I can tell and looking at the ingredients you used pre shredded parmesan cheese not parmesan reggiano. To claim this as authentic is just wrong!
Karly says
Hi Jackson! I don’t call for pre-shredded Parmesan. You can buy a block and shred yourself. And you can certainly use Parmigiano Reggiano, but it’s quite a bit pricier than Parmesan and more difficult to find.