Alfredo sauce is one of those things that I only splurge on in restaurants, and even then only once in a while. 1, because it always tastes so good (the jarred kind makes me gag) and 2, because that’s as often as my hips can handle it. I found out my favorite restaurant alfredo dish has a over a thousand calories and a whopping 55 grams of fat! However, Alfredo sauce is also one of those things that was always on my list of ‘things that should never be ‘light”.
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.The milk, flour, cream cheese and salt go in a blender
And the garlic and butter go in a pan for a quick sizzle. Then you pour the milk mixture in there and heat it to thicken, and in goes the parm. That’s it!
Guiltless Alfredo Sauce
Ingredients:
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
Instructions:
Place milk, cream cheese, flour, and salt in a blender and blend until smooth. In a non-stick sauce pan, melt butter on med-high heat and add garlic. Let the garlic saute for about 30 seconds, you don’t want to burn it.
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!
This clocks in at around 100 calories for 1/4 C sauce!
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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 9×13, 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
I was thoroughly impressed with this recipe. You're absolutely right–it does NOT taste "lite"! I ended up adding a bit more salt and a bit more cheese upon serving but still, the best homemade alfredo I have made… and I have tried dozens of recipes!
I just made this sauce and used Onion and Chive cream cheese – yum!
Another fan! The last few tries I have had at making Alfredo have been bleh, blah, and belch. This is the first time I have had success and its light! How awesome is that. Thanks!
Wondering if you could use fat free cream cheese and fat free milk. Should I not chance it?
PS, just found your blog. I'm a recipe blogger too. So, i'll have to make it and blog about it. (:
http://www.blendra.com
Kendra–Don't chance it :). Just use 1% and low-fat cream cheese. You'll thank us, we promise. :)
I only had the fat free options in my fridge, so I used them. I thought it tasted delicious and it got rave reviews from my son and husband.
I have a question… Would marscapone cheese work in lieu of cream cheese?
I'm probably one of about 4 people on the planet who LOATHES cream cheese. I once used some cream cheese that was in the fridge (for a dip) in a white sauce and it was all I could smell and taste. I had to stop eating (and before anyone asks- yes, the cream cheese was fresh!).
Soo yeah. Marscapone or other soft cheese– What do you think?
I just found this recipe today, and made it for lunch for my son, who is home from school sick today. He loved it, and he's not even the alfredo-lover of the family!
I tweaked it a little–used seasoned salt instead of regular, added freshly ground black pepper, and tossed in a little of Tastefully Simple's Dried Tomato Pesto mix, just because I love the flavor it adds.
Also sauteed some mushrooms and red peppers while the sauce was simmering, and served it all over linguine, with sliced left-over grilled chicken. Mmmmm, good!
This is SOOOO delicious. I topped penne pasta with this sauce and the brushetta recipe from this website. I didn't have parmesan cheese so I used the low fat feta in my fridge and it worked so well and had a mediterranean feel. I just learned about this blog from a friend and I totally owe her!
Whoa….this sounds FABULOUS!!! Bookmarked, stumbled….and everything else I can think of! ;)
I just made this for dinner, and i absolutely love it! I think it tastes better than the stuff in the restaurants, AND there is no comparison between this and the crap in jars. I love it! My husband was also a big fan, but wished I'd remember to mix in some shrimp. Thank you for the recipe!!!
I have a really dumb question….. In place of blending it in a blender, would an emersion blender do the same thing?? I ask because I do not have a blender, but I do have an emersion blender, which I LOVE!! Would it work?
Brenda Sue- ya, that should work just fine. You just don't want any big chunks of cream cheese in there, so blend thoroughly and you'll be fine!
Question…I've never bought anything other than the canned parmesan cheese and the pre-shredded in a bag. Is parmesan even available in a block form? And did you use the pre-shredded?
Jenny, yes you can buy fresh Parmesan, it's usually in a wedge. In some stores it's only available in the fancy cheese section in the deli. But in many cases you can find it in the regular cheese section and it's pretty inexpensive. I buy it at Walmart, Frigo brand and it's in a wedge with a green label, near the specialty cheeses, like blue cheese. It only costs about $2. You can use the crumbly canned stuff in this sauce, but avoid the pre-shredded stuff. It doesn't melt well and you'll end up with chunky sauce!
I want to use this sauce in your Chicken Penne Bake. I'm sure the original sauce is amazing, but when I calculated the calories it came out higher than where I like to be for our meals. So I'd like to sub this in instead – would it be enough to just double it for that recipe? Or more like triple (judging by 2 cups of milk in this one and 6 cups in the other). Thanks!!
Katie- ya I'd probably triple it just to make sure you have enough!
I am making this for dinner tonight & am so excited because every recipe I get on your site is phenomenal! And a little FYI for those on Weight Watchers…it comes out to be approx. 7pts per serving w/a 4oz grilled chicken breast. Gonna serve it with some broccoli too. Woo-hoo…hubby is gonna love it!
Just made this tonight for the first time. My husband and kids LOVED it! And I did, too, knowing it was guiltless!
I have to admit that I was skeptical about guiltless alfredo sauce, but my husband and I LOVED it! Thank you for sharing this recipe so we can enjoy fettuccini alfredo with a lot less calories!
yummm!
a really good friend of mine is on a diet and really wanted alfredo pasta so we made this!
it was delicious, and it was a "healthy" way to satisfy her craving! thanks! :)
Hi Sara! This looks great! I can't wait to try it. How do you usually keep your pasta fresh looking and warm at a pasta bar party? Do you just use olive oil, butter, or something? Thanks!
Rebecca, yep I usually just toss with a little olive oil. The key is eating right as soon as it's ready!
I want to make this for a potluck lunch and am wondering how much pasta to cook for this amount of sauce. Thanks so much. Love your blog!
About 1 lb of pasta :)
Made this for dinner tonight, my 5,6 and 9 year loved this! My hubby who isn't a Alfredo fan is taking the leftovers for lunch tomorrow. I was surprised how easy it came together. I added diced chicken and it was perfect!
I made a double recipe and my family loved it over fettucini. With the leftovers I added some homemade pesto I had in the freezer. It made a great creamy pesto sauce.
This was DELICIOUS!!! I was blown away, and I'm typically not an alfredo fan. I'm thinking very seriously about making a massive batch of it and canning it in smaller jars. I hate buying the alfredo sauce from the store and only using half a jar. The leftover sauce sits in the fridge for about 2 weeks and then gets tossed.
Even my super picky kids loved it. Thanks for another great recipe!
AMAZING! This passed the I-don’t-like-anything-light test with my hubby! Making it again tonight! YUM!!!
This was really fabulous! I made it tonight and still can’t believe how good it was. I’ve made the “full of guilt and shame” versions with sticks of butter and cups of cream and, although they tasted great, I felt horrible serving it to my family. This version made us all happy. Thank you!
Of the many “guiltless” alfredos I’ve tried, this one is by far the absolute best. Thank you, thank you and thank you for giving me my favorite “treat” and not feeling too bad about it. I have yet to find a recipe that I donn’t like!!
Oops, “don’t” like.
I tried this recipe out of your book, Our Best Bites. I am hooked! I have never tried to make Alfredo sauce from scratch because it always looked too hard. This was easy to make and OH SO GOOD!
The real Parmesan makes a huge difference. I splurged (when I usually substitute the Kraft kind) and am so glad I did.
Thank you for a keeper!
Thank you for alfredo sauce. My kids LOVES it. My MIL (italian american) ate 2 bowls! Definitely use this recipe for a long time! *thumb ups*
This is a keeper! It was quick and easy. The entire family loved it. I brought the leftovers to my assistant, she scarfed it down and agreed! I almost like it better than the “real” thing because it isn’t rich and heavy. My tummy felt much better afterwards than it does with a cream version.
I can’t believe how creamy this “low fat” sauce is! I served it on linguini with broccoli and it was very tasty. I plan to use an alternative version (more cream cheese, no parmesan) on cauliflower and potatoes “au gratin”.
Can’t wait for tomorrow to eat the leftovers pasta! :)
This sauce can be made Gluten-free by substituting Almond Meal or any other bean free flour substitute. The Almond meal adds an awesome flavor…I love this sauce for gluten free chicken alfredo pizza.
Each first Sunday of the month I gather together a group of friends for a potluck. Usually sometime on Saturday I start whining to my kids, ‘what should I make, what should I make?” While I have (very often) sent people to your site after their “ooo, they’re so cute!” and “what a great idea” comments regarding PIZOOKIES (of which the missionaries are particularly big fans)
for some riduculous reason, I have never thought to look here for ideas!! BIG DUH. I’m a week ahead of time and already have ideas for entire rest of the year and it doesn’t matter how large the crowd gets! woo hoo – thanks for all your posts, ideas and time! you guys rock. oops, girls!
I used this sauce to make a creamy chicken and spinach lasagna. I’ve had a recipe using a different sauce for a while, but I thought I would try it with your sauce instead. It was FANTASTIC! Loved it!
Thank you for all your wonderful recipes. My friend bought me your cookbook a few weeks ago and I have been pouring over it every day. We’ve tried several recipes and have found many winners. I love to cook and love trying new recipes, but I rarely find so many recipes from one source that are consistently amazing. Thank you and keep up the good work!
This was really good!! I licked the plate :)
I just made this for dinner but added pesto in the blender. Cooked some fresh mushrooms and set aside and in a separate pan I cooked some chicken breasts, chopped into squares and threw in some extra pesto (thank you Costco – easy, cheap and HUGE jar so you can freeze it) then threw in some garden tomatoes and let that simmer. In the mean time I made your recipe, added the mushrooms to the chicken tomato mixture and mixed it together… OH MY GOODNESS!! It was amazing! I served it over Costco’s chicken ravioli with spaghetti squash.
THANK YOU!!! It tasted really guilty but wasn’t at all compared to my regular (famous chain) recipe.
Yum! I made this last night and felt like I’d had a little piece of heaven! It’s so good! I just got my library to order your cookbook and can’t wait until it gets here! Love you girls!
My family just loved this. What I loved the most was there was no grease left on our plates after we had finished, like the kind made with cream & butter.
Winner, winner, winner.
I am on a low sodium diet and halfed the salt and used nosalt butter but it turned out AMAZING!!! I will make again thank you.
Yum!! Best Alfredo sauce I ever made or tasted, definitely does not taste healthy I am so happy I can enjoy this sauce and not feel guilty ;)
I’m a little slow on the up-take, but I found this recipe on Pinterest and knew I had to try it. My lighter-version-hating boyfriend and I used this sauce with lobster ravioli from Trader Joe’s, and when he caught a peak of the recipe, told me he was more than skeptical that it would taste good.
Much to both of our amazement, he LOVED it, told me it was a winner, and asked me to keep the recipe for the future. It seriously is SO good (especially compared to the icky jarred versions)!! Thank you for the recipe!
I was skeptical but this was amazing! Even my toddler loved it. Thank you!
This was amazing! My toddler ate it right up too! Thank you so much! I’m never buying the jar stuff again!
I found this site, and this recipe, via pinterest. I tried it and I LOVE IT! Quick question; can I make a bunch of this and then freezez it? Would it be any good that way? Just askin’ in case anyone else had tried it :)
I’ve never tried freezing it so I’m really not sure how it would turn out. Sorry!
Okay, so I feel like a loser because even though the taste was great, it turned out very runny. I followed the directions exactly and just went over it again to see if I did something wrong… I don’t think I did. I’m not that great of a cook anyway, so if you have any advice on thickening, that would be appreciated. (I did use skim milk instead of 1%, but a lot of other people mentioned they did too without any problems???)
You may have just not simmered it long enough Jasmine, sometimes you have to ignore the times mentioned and just cook it long enough for it to thicken.
just wondering how much the recipes makes? wanted to make this for the family tonight and didnt know how many servings are in one batch. thanks!
I’ve made this recipe many times (including last night), and I just love it!! I throw in a little extra garlic for good measure. :)
Just one comment to add- last night I was talking to my sister, and she told me that she made this too (I posted the recipe/link on my blog), but didn’t love it. She said it turned out grainy. My guess as to what went wrong was correct, which was that she used pre-grated cheese. I always freshly grate my Parmesan, and didn’t even think about the fact that it might not work with pre-grated cheese. I just updated my blog to say that I recommend always using FRESHLY grated cheese for this.