Easy Alfredo Sauce (w/Cream Cheese)

by Sabrina Snyder

Published on

41 Comments

4.72 from 14 votes
8
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
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Homemade Alfredo Sauce with Cream Cheese is the creamiest, easiest quick fettuccini Alfredo ever! Made with just 5 ingredients in 20 minutes.

Learning to cook homemade sauces like Easy Marinara makes weeknight cooking so much easier, tastier, and affordable. You won’t have to rely on store-bought sauce when an Italian Food craving hits.

Easy Alfredo Sauce

ALFREDO SAUCE WITH CREAM CHEESE

If you are looking for a quick and easy dinner tonight, this is the Alfredo Sauce for you. Made in less than 20 minutes, this tasty creamy Alfredo Sauce with Cream Cheese tossed with your favorite pastas sure to be a weeknight go-to meal.

This Alfredo Sauce with Cream Cheese recipe comes together with just a handful of inexpensive ingredients. It’s much richer and creamier than any store-bought sauce and you can easily double the recipe to freeze for later.

This easy creamy sauce can be used in so many ways, not just pasta dishes. Serve Alfredo Sauce with Cream Cheese over wide noodle pastas like fettuccine, cheesy stuffed pastas like tortellini, or substitute it in Meat Lasagna.

Creamy Alfredo Sauce

Spoon this creamy sauce over side dishes like Roasted Broccoli and Roasted Red Potatoes to turn them into main dishes. Top Baked Chicken Thighs with this easy Alfredo Sauce for a quick and filling keto dinner. 

Alfredo Sauce with Cream Cheese makes an easy and delicious dipping sauce for Garlic Bread or French Roll Breadsticks. Next time you throw a party, keep Alfredo Sauce with Cream Cheese warm in a mini crockpot, stirring occasionally, served with bread for a tasty Italian appetizer.

MORE EASY, DELICIOUS HOMEMADE SAUCES

Using Grated Parmesan and Cream Cheese:

The total time to make Alfredo Sauce with Cream Cheese goes quickly if your cream cheese is softened. Put cream cheese on counter about 30-45 minutes before you want start dinner or just put it in a microwave safe bowl covered with a wet paper towel and microwave it for 90 seconds on half power.

Either way do NOT use cold cream cheese. If you use cold cream cheese, don’t try to increase the heat to cook faster. Cooking dairy at a high heat curdles it so you won’t get a creamy sauce.

Easily grate parmesan at home for Alfredo Sauce with Cream Cheese using either the fine side of your cheese grater (making fine shreds) or use a food processor. For this quick and easy version we actually used the grated Parmesan you buy in a shaker and it was DELICIOUS. No gritty aftertaste.

Alfredo Sauce Ingredients

VARIATIONS ON ALFREDO SAUCE WITH CREAM CHEESE

    • Bacon: Who wouldn’t love Bacon Alfredo Sauce? Cook a few bacon slices until crispy, crumble, and stir into sauce with the parmesan or right before serving.
    • Veggies: Add veggies like sun-dried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, fresh diced tomatoes (seeds removed), sautéed mushrooms, or thawed frozen peas to your sauce with the parmesan cheese.
    • Heavy Cream: For an extra rich and creamy Alfredo Sauce, substitute heavy whipping cream for the whole milk in this recipe. You can also use half and half!
    • Spices: Give your Alfredo more flavor with Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, dried basil, or a pinch of nutmeg. Garnish with fresh chopped Italian parsley.
    • Cheese: Make this sauce even more creamy and decadent with more fresh shredded cheese like provolone, mozzarella, or white cheddar stirred in at the end until melted.
    • Fettuccini Alfredo: Toss this creamy sauce with fettuccini pasta cooked to al dente, with a little reserved pasta water as needed, and top with Grilled Chicken Breasts or Grilled Lime Shrimp for an easy dinner.

EASY ITALIAN PASTA DISHES

HOW TO STORE ALFREDO SAUCE WITH CREAM CHEESE

  • Serve: This sauce is best served hot and right away but can be at room temperature for up to 2 hours.
  • Store: Store Alfredo Sauce in an airtight container in a refrigerator for 3-4 days. Reheat in a medium saucepan over low heat, stirring often.
  • Freeze: Cool Alfredo Sauce completely and put in a sealed container, with a small gap between the sauce and the lid. Freeze sauce for 4-6 months and thaw in fridge overnight before reheating.

Fettuccini Alfredo in red pot

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Dinner, then Dessert

Alfredo Sauce with Cream Cheese

Homemade Alfredo Sauce with Cream Cheese is the creamiest, easiest Alfredo recipe. Toss with any pasta for quick family friendly Italian meal in 20 minutes.
Yield 8
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Course Sauce
Cuisine American, Italian
Author Sabrina Snyder
Alfredo Sauce on pasta in pot
PrintRate

Ingredients
 

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter
  • 8 ounces cream cheese , softened
  • 3 cloves garlic , minced
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
  • 2 cups whole milk
  • 2 cups grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions

  • In a large dutch oven on medium heat, whisk together the butter, cream cheese, garlic, salt and pepper until smooth and creamy (the cream cheese needs to be softened or this will take a long time).
  • Slowly whisk in the milk until smooth.
  • Whisk in the grated parmesan cheese and cook for 3-4 minutes until thickened.

Nutrition

Calories: 345kcal | Carbohydrates: 6g | Protein: 13g | Fat: 30g | Saturated Fat: 18g | Cholesterol: 90mg | Sodium: 647mg | Potassium: 155mg | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 1050IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 379mg | Iron: 1mg

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Easy Alfredo Sauce collage

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

See more posts by Sabrina

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. If you enjoyed the recipe and would like to publish it on your own site, please re-write it in your own words, and link back to my site and recipe page. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. I want to make this and use it as the base for a million dollar spaghetti where it’s Alfredo noodles topped with meat sauce + cheese and baked. But is it okay if I prepped everything (sauce/noodles) and then didn’t put it in the oven for about 60-90 minutes? I don’t want my Alfredo sauce to seperate but I’m trying to make it work with an evening I have to go to the gym.

    Reply

  2. I made this recipe last night for the family and they loved it! I sautéd the garlic with onions and mushrooms in the pan that I had seared and cooked the chicken breast in, then I added all of that to my sauce along with Italian Seasoning as well as freeze dried basil. Once the noodles were finished and drained they were added to the pot too served with a big salad and cheesecake for dessert. It made for a great meal! Thank you for the recipe.

    Reply

  3. Best Alfredo sauce I have ever had. Soft,creamy, wonderful. I will use half and half and butter and different herbs as it will be easy to find more uses for this delicious sauce.

    Reply

  4. I love your recipes. I have your cookbook. But alfredo sauce is butter, heavy cream and freshly grated parmesan. Salt and pepper. That’s all. I tried it with cream cheese and it just tasted diluted. Love you anyway, Anne

    Reply

    1. Aww.. Thanks Anne. Some say cream cheese makes alfredo sauce richer. I’m glad you tried it at least!

      Reply

  6. This is an awesome recipe. Quick and easy, so versatile and delicious! I served with shrimp and lobster ravioli. Highly recommend.

    Reply

  7. So good. My entire family loves it. I use 1 c. Parmesan and 1 cup Locatelli Romano. It gives it a salty bite you can’t get from regular salt. I would highly recommend this recipe.

    Reply

  8. Amazing! Topped it with air fryer chicken tenders (dipped in butter then a mixture of panko, grated Parmesan and Italian spice). Added quartered artichoke hearts and it rivals my favorite Italian restaurant. Thanks so much. It comes together so quickly! Yum!

    Reply

  11. Omg! This was amazing! I grilled chicken to go with it. The Alfredo is so good, I made this in 30 min so easy, and a family favorite

    Reply

  12. Hi Sabrina,
    I was wondering if I can use heavy whipping cream or half & half instead of milk, as less carbs.
    Thank you, TRULY enjoy all your recipes!

    Reply

  17. I made this recipe when my husband one day was in the mood for pasta with alfredo sauce. I usually but the jar and then “tweak” it but I did not have any at the time. So onto Pinterest I went and found this jewel. I happened to have all the ingredients on hand and I WILL NOT EVER BUY THE JAR ONE AGAIN!!!! This was so easy and so extremely flavorful, we had the leftovers the next day for lunch again! Can’t wait to make this again! Thank you so much

    Reply

        1. I’m sorry, I haven’t tested it with almond milk so I couldn’t say with certainty, but I don’t think it would work well.

          Reply

  19. Wow…I just made this and it turned out wonderful. It’s something so good and so easy to make. Will be making again! Thanks!

    Reply

  21. I love the taste and texture of this, i didn’t have cream but had cream cheese by chance so I was still able to make this vs most other pasta dishes require cream.

    Reply

  23. Wow – very simple to make! It turned out great thick and creamy just like the recipe said! I will use this recipe again soon. Thanks so much!

    Reply

  24. This looks so delicious! I love that you can freeze it. It’ll make those busy days so much better.

    Reply