Until this.
I hate it when people hand you some sort of baked good and say "you can't even tell it's light!" as you force something resembling cardboard into your mouth nodding and trying to smile reassuringly. I swear to you, our loyal readers, this is actually GOOD. Really good. It's thick and creamy and flavorful, and I promise you, it really doesn't taste light. Try me! It will change your life, and everyone will wonder how you can eat cream sauce several times a week and look so fabulous.
The last and final reason I love this sauce is because it's so quick and easy. You can have it done in under 10 minutes, and it's made with stuff you probably already have. And if you really don't care about calories, go ahead and make it with whole milk. It's still going to be waaay lighter than using cream, and it tastes extra delicious. I know because when I made it for these pictures I had extra whole milk left-over from ice cream so I tossed it in there. Yum!
Okay, I'll stop yapping now.
milk, Parmesan cheese, butter, cream cheese, garlic, flour, salt.Guiltless Alfredo Sauce
2 C low-fat milk
1/3 C (3 oz) low fat cream cheese
2 T flour
1 t salt
1 T butter
3 garlic cloves
1 C grated Parmesan cheese
Toss the milk, cream cheese, flour, and salt in a blender.
Process until smooth and set aside.In a non-stick sauce pan, melt butter on med-high heat and add garlic. Stand above the pan (but not close enough to scald your face) and inhale. Ahhh...butter and garlic. Okay, now get cooking again. Let the garlic saute for about 30 seconds, you don't want to burn it. It should be nice and bubbly like this:
Then add milk mixture to the pan. Stir constantly for about 3 or 4 minutes or until it just comes to a simmer. Keep stirring and let it cook for a few minutes more. It should be much thicker now.
When it's nice and thickened remove the pan from the heat. Add the cheese, stir it up and then cover immediately. Let stand for at least 10 minutes before using. It will continue to thicken upon standing. Also, if you have leftovers in the fridge, the sauce will thicken almost into a solid. Just re-heat and add a little milk and it will be back to normal again.
I use this sauce for so many things. Here's a few ideas:
-Over pasta (obviously)
-As a dip for breadsticks
-As a sauce on pizza (this is the garlic cream sauce I was referring to in this recipe) and a half batch of sauce covers 2 medium pizza's.
-Mix it with pesto for a creamy pesto sauce (so good)
-Mix it with marinara for a creamy marinara sauce
One time when we had dinner guests over with a bunch of kids, we did a pasta bar. I made a couple different pastas, a couple different meats, and then made this sauce, marinara, and pesto. Everyone had so much fun mixing and matching and combining. The adults could get fancy with alfredo-pesto over bow-ties and the kids could have plain ol' spaghetti if they wanted to. Toss in some french bread and a salad and you have a really fun, and really easy meal!
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I love alfredo/garlic anything so I can't wait to try this. I especially love it on pizza, breadsticks and pasta. I know, real original, but really yummy!
I "hide" vegetables in my alfredo sauce. I cube & cook chicken, and then I add cooked baby carrots, green beans, and olives (okay, olives aren't veggies). Then I mix in alfredo sauce and pour over noodles. My kids can hardly tell they are eating vegetables because they like alfredo sauce so much. And with this alfredo sauce recipe, I can eat even more because it is guiltless :)
I'm actually not the biggest fan of alfredo sauce, but part of that is that it always makes me feel sick afterwards because it's so fatty and heavy, so I DEFINITELY need to give this a shot! Clark would love it. Sam (shockingly) does not like creamy pasta sauces.
I love pasta primavera, which I haven't made in ages because of the cream. I'll have to make it next week with this sauce!
Mmm, I love alfredo sauce on pizza, but I will have to try this sauce with your oh-so-yummy breadsticks that we love. Mmm, that's making me hungry!
We decided to have Gnochi's for lunch and I decided I wanted to make this because I'm not a huge fan of the store bought one we have in the fridge. This is so yummy!
I've never made alfredo sauce because I knew how unhealthy it was. So, now I actually have no idea if I even like it or not... but I'm pretty sure Noal does. Happy birthday to him! BTW, he loves you Sara, any one who motivates me to cook is a goddess in his eyes.
One question: how many servings does this recipe make, realistically.
I wanted this recipe a while back and I couldn't find it so I am so happy you put it up here! I love it most on your bbq pizzas... mmmmmm :D
Wendy- lol about Noal. Funny how food makes boys so happy!
Good question about the serving size, I always forget to include things like that.
When I use this to just make one big mixed-up pot of pasta, meat, veggies, etc. One batch of sauce makes enough to cover pasta serving 8, 1 Cup servings. If you like pasta more saucy, then it would be more like 6 servings.
Hopefully that helps I guess it depends on how much you use and what you're putting it on, and also what you consider a serving size (if it's a main dish, or a side dish, etc.)
Also, I should note, that when I make pizzas, I make a half-batch which covers 2 medium pizzas just perfect.
This stuff is so good. I love it!
I just made it, and it was good! I had some plain, and I added tomato sauce to some too. I was babysitting, and the kids ate a ton too. There were no leftovers. Thanks sara!
i like it on mashed potatoes
I'm a different Adrienne, but I love Alfredo sauce and would even lick the pan it was made in. I like it with ravioli as well as adding cooked chicken and mushrooms to the sauce.
Oops, can't edit comments.
Does this recipe double or triple ok? I want to make enough to freeze in smaller portions for a few dinners and then even smaller portions for lunches. Mixed with some elbow noodles and tossed in a thermos this would be an easy lunch for my son. He loves alfredo sauce!
Heather- I've doubled this many times and it works great. It just may take a little longer to thicken the milk/flour mix, but that's it. Good idea!
This is so yummy! We had it tonight, and you REALLY can't tell it's a lighter version.
Thanks for the recipe-no more of those icky packets of the powdered version for us!
The best pasta dish I ever had was raviolis with butternut squash sauce..it was SO good! I bet this will be similar. Can't wait to try it.
P.S. I read every word of this post.
Delicious! I made this tonight so we could try the Fall Alfredo... I love it, I was "tasting" it the whole time I was making it. Thanks! ...will try the pizza with the leftover alfredo!
Sara,
Thanks so much, it looks yummy. I'm so glad my friend connected me to your blog. Your posts are amazing with all the details and pictures. Thanks, cooking and reading recipes is hobby and addiction to me!
This was light. No one would believe it, this tasted that good. Have you ever figured out the "food label" for it?
Our purple Cabernet noodles (home made and gluten free using grape flour) where a great contrast under the white sauce.
I haven't calculated the food label for it, but I should. I'll do that and edit this post. Your noodles sound amazing!
I used this to make shrimp fettuccini...AMAZING! I made the sauce, boiled 12 oz noodles, then sauteed 1 lb of raw shrimp in 1 Tbs. of butter and 1 clove of pressed garlic, then tossed them all together. It was very close to the dish I order at my favorite Italian resturaunt, and I'm sure much less calories! Thank you!!
Sara, thank you! We had my father in law over last minute and I had no idea what I was going to make for dinner. I looked through your recipes and ended up making this delicious alfredo sauce with some chicken fettuccine and Kate's breadsticks out of items I had in my pantry. Now I will be making them all the time, so yummy!
Just tried tonight and LOVED it. I have been looking for a good alfredo recipe for a long time. I have enough left over for the alfredo pizza. So excited to try that. Thanks for all your great recipes.
Ok LOVE LOVE LOVE your blog. I made the grilled pizza last week and my husband and I thought we'd died and gone to heaven. THANK YOU!
Quick question - do you think this would work with soy milk? I'm not super tolerant of dairy (the small amount of cheese would be ok) but the milk would be too much.
Let me know what you think! Thanks!
Katie- I bet it would work fine with soy milk. It would taste a bit different, but as far as thickening and everything, it should work. If you try it, come back and let us know!
Ok, so after drooling over the thought of this for a few days, because I looovvveee alfredo sauce, I finally got around to making it tonight......wow. WOW. Seriously, you will NOT be disappointed. It is soooooo delicious I bet God himself uses this stuff as shampoo. Bravo!!
Ok - I'm back with the scoop on soy! So, this isn't really a great review, as I don't have the "real thing" to compare it to. But... my alfredo turned out quite nicely with soy milk! It was a little lumpy, but I think that was due to not blending the cream cheese enough (I'm impatient!). Thanks again for the recipe - my husband LOVED this over a little past and grilled veggies - yum!
I used this last night to make Tuna casserole and it worked beautifully. All my kids loved it and had seconds.
Thanks for sharing. I hate buying the bottles they are so expensive.
This looks delish!
Have to say that I was really skeptical of this... cream cheese in alfredo? But it is soooo very good! Kudos! My husband, mom, and dad all loved it! And I loved serving them a healthy alternative. The best part is, they didn't even notice anything was missing!
Will definately try this one. My newest savior in efforts to cut fat and calories is that "new" Over the Moon milk. It is so thick and rich, you'll never believe it's 1% or skim. It results in MUCH richer and tastier low fat/low cal dishes. I'll be using it with this recipe! Thanks!!
I just made this sauce for dinner and my whole family loved it. Even my picky ones asked for seconds. Awesome that it is lower in fat. Side note I used 1 1/4 cups of skim milk and 1/4 cup of half and half. Delicious thank you for the yummy recipe.
I made this the other day and it was a hit! I did use skim milk because that is all I had and it still was yummy. I had too many of your tasty breadsticks dipped in this sauce. . .yikes!
I've become converted to the way of Alfredo ... I never thought this would happen.
PS: Skim milk works fine :)
just finished eating and it was deeeeeee-lish! great recipe!
I made this last night for the Baked Chicken Bacon Alfredo and it was AMAZING! Everyone loved it! But I do have a question-when I was making it it was nice and smooth.Then I added the parmesan, covered it, and let it sit for 10 mins like it said. And it turned kind of lumpy, like the parmesan didn't blend in completely or something. Did I do something wrong? It still tasted fantastic though!
Allie--Did you by any chance use the pre-shredded Parmesan cheese (like the kind that comes in a bag and it's with the other cheeses)? That happens to me when I use that cheese, so I've started grating it from a wedge, just for texture issues, but if I'm in a pinch, I just use the pre-shredded stuff because, like you said, it tastes the same! :)
Hope that helps!
So, being "food label" curious too, like Diamond, I checked the recipe on Calorie Count & here's what I found for 8 servings:
Serving Size 59 g
Calories 128
Calories from Fat 84
Total Fat 9.4g
Saturated Fat 5.8g
Cholesterol 29mg
Sodium 536mg
Total Carbs 4.1g
Sugars 1.7g
Protein 6.9g
Hope that helps! You can use Calorie Count for any recipe you have, which I frequently do when deciding whether to make it or not.
http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php?process=resubmit&count=5
Stephanie
I've made this recipe so many times I know it by heart! We make a marinara sauce too, and do half & half with those sauces on the pasta. So delicious! I'm always telling people about this website. You do an awesome job!
We had this for dinner tonight and it was SUPER DUPER YUMMY!! I couldn't tell the difference between this and the alfredo I get at one of my favorite restaurants...plus the kids GOBBLED it up!!!
I am trying the Turkey Burgers tomorrow!!
I just made this, and the sauce is beyond amazing. But I used it to make an "alfredo pot pie," which was heaven on a plate, and pretty simple. In a separate pan from the sauce, I cooked some boneless, skinless chicken thighs, seasoned with garlic powder and garlic salt, in olive oil. When done, I removed them to a plate, added a teeny bit of butter and then a package of sliced, fresh mushrooms and sauteed those. While they cooked, I diced up the chicken. Finally, I made the sauce. Once it was all ready, I put the chicken and mushrooms in a glass 9x13, poured the sauce over, and then put a layer of refrigerator crescent rolls over the top. Baked at 375 for 11 minutes, and VOILA. One of the best dinners I've ever made. And that sauce really brought the whole thing together - it was DIVINE.
BTW, I used skim milk, b/c it's all we ever buy, and it was still amazing and thickened up nicely.
Michelle
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