Easy Creamy Alfredo with Bacon and Peas - Recipe Diaries (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to smooth Alfredo sauce? ›

Add heavy whipping cream, a little at a time, whisking to smooth out lumps. Stir in Parmesan and pepper. Remove from heat when sauce reaches desired consistency. Sauce will thicken rapidly, thin with milk if cooked too long.

Heartier herbs like thyme or oregano can be added in to simmer with the sauce. Add delicate herbs like parsley, basil, or chervil at the end to maintain their delicate, aromatic flavor. Quick tip: Swirl in a bit of leftover pesto to add another herbaceous twist to your Alfredo sauce.

The key ingredient in Alfredo sauce is cheese—generally Parmigiano Reggiano—and lots of it. To thicken Alfredo sauce, simply add more cheese than the amount called for in a recipe until you achieve the consistency you want.

After 12 ounces of fettuccine pasta noodles are finished cooking, reserve 2 cups of the pasta water to include in your sauce. The starchy water is essential to creating a thick, creamy sauce consistency.

Mix the cornstarch with some cold water to create a smooth slurry, then whisk it into the sauce while cooking over medium-high heat for a few minutes. Add all-purpose flour. Another very common thickening agent that will give your Alfredo sauce a creamy texture.

While controlling the heat is what helps the fat (oil) not separate from the sauce in the first place, adding cream to your leftovers is what helps to revive the dish. This leaves the pasta nice and creamy again and makes sure that it's not dried out.

Fettuccine Alfredo Ingredients

Cream: The rich sauce calls for almost a cup of heavy cream. Seasonings: The fettuccine Alfredo is simply seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic salt. Cheese: You'll need Romano and Parmesan cheeses.

Extra seasonings and spices will go a long way in adding flavor to a boring jar of sauce. Some of my personal favorites include salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, dried basil, oregano, onion powder or seasoned salt. Start with small amounts (1/2 teaspoon at a time) and add as needed, in order to avoid over-spicing.

This recipe for homemade alfredo sauce uses $4.33 worth of ingredients and makes 9.5 ounces, which is also roughly 46 cents per ounce. This means homemade alfredo sauce costs about the same as high quality jarred sauces, but tastes even better.

How to make Alfredo sauce stick to pasta? ›

Once the pasta is in the sauce, add pasta water. This is the most vital step in the process. Starchy pasta water doesn't just help thin the sauce to the right consistency; it also helps it cling to the pasta better and emulsify with the fat and cheese you're going to be adding.

Why won't my cheese melt? There are many reasons, but the biggest is the moisture content. The moisture content of the cheese has a great effect on the melting process. Cheese that contains higher amounts of fat will melt better than one that doesn't.

Parmesan is the signature flavor in Alfredo sauce but you can also combine it with other cheeses for additional flavor. You can also make a a completely different sauce/different flavor profile by swapping the Parmesan for another melting cheese such as mozzarella, Asiago, Gouda, smoked cheddar, Monterrey, etc.

Flours can be used to make a bit of a slurry and add to the sauce to make it thicker. 1 part flour to 2 parts liquid and then adding it to your sauce should thicken it nicely. Just make sure that when you make the slurry, there are no lumps in your mixture.

Don't overheat any cheese sauce or it will “break” meaning that the cheese will separate into a thin sauce and bits of cheese which describes the “grainy” nature of your Alfredo sauce. Ideally Alfredo sauce should not be “cooked” at all but combined using the heat from the pasta only.

One of the simplest ways to avoid greasy, separated Alfredo sauce is to heat it slowly over the stove instead in the microwave. Microwaves heat up food much faster than a stove does, and the faster you reheat your leftover sauce, the more likely it is to separate.

Adding that starchy pasta-cooking water to the sauce helps emulsify it, ensuring it's smooth and creamy.