Olive Garden Alfredo Sauce
An easy, no-fuss dish you can make right at home with ingredients that you already have on hand. It’s also cheaper, healthier and quicker than ordering out!
I woke up one morning with a huge craving for alfredo sauce. I don’t know what it was but I just had to have it right then and there. But delivery was going to take over an hour and Olive Garden was about 45 minutes away. And I just couldn’t wait that long.
At that point, I was almost even tempted to buy those jarred alfredo sauces. Yes, I just wanted it that badly. I know. Shameful.
But after perusing through my pantry, I realized that I had all the ingredients to make the Olive Garden alfredo sauce right at home. And surprisingly enough, it came together in just 15 minutes from start to finish. It couldn’t be easier!
And as always, the homemade version really knocked it out of the park. I was thoroughly satisfied, as I devoured about 3 servings of these. Then I ran 4 miles. It’s all about that balance, right?
Olive Garden Alfredo Sauce
Ingredients
- 8 ounces fettuccine
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 3 cloves garlic, pressed
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ½ cup whole milk, or more, to taste
- ⅓ cup freshly grated Parmesan
- 1 large egg yolk, beaten
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
Instructions
- In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package instructions; drain well.
- Combine butter, garlic, heavy cream and milk in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer; remove from heat and stir in Parmesan and egg yolk, whisking constantly to prevent the eggs from scrambling. If the mixture is too thick, add more milk as needed.
- Stir in pasta and gently toss to combine; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Serve immediately, garnished with Parmesan and parsley, if desired.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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Excited to try this! Can I use salted butter instead of unsalted?
Yes, absolutely! Just be sure to control the salt content in the actual recipe since your butter already contains salt.
Thanks for making this available!
Since the sauce is named after Alfredo Di Lelio I, perhaps you should capitalize “Alfredo”.
I have 2% milk, can i use that instead of whole milk?
Yes, that should be fine!
This looks amazing! I love Olive Garden and I am sure this version taste better than the original. The inclusion of the Parsley takes this dish to another level.
Tried this last night & absolutely loved it!! So quick & easy..never buying alfredo sauce from a jar again.
Made this tonight with shrimp and it’s delicious! I had to improvise with 1/2 & 1/2 and enough 2% milk to make 1 cup, but it turned out just fine. Thanks for posting this recipe.
Guess I’ll add my question to the stack. Is the parmesan cheese used in this recipe the fresh shredded kind you buy in the dairy case or the dry type that comes in a can? Are they interchangeable? Thank you.
I always used the freshly grated Parmesan cheese (it’s actually a Parmesan-Romano blend), preferably the one from Trader Joe’s. You can certainly use the dry one but fresh is always best!
This is better than Olive Garden because last time I went to Olive Garden they couldn’t serve me Alfredo sauce because the truck with the canned sauces had not arrived. They gave me a weird look when I suggested all the ingredients for making fresh sauce was at the grocery store across the parking lot. Not one person there new how to make sauce from scratch.
Made it again and wow it was amazing this time lol Thanks for posting the recipe
I’m a rookie at cooking, I didn’t get it right the first time lol
Jackie,
What did you do differently the second time? I tried to make it for the first time last night and had the same experience you did with the sauce tasting like garlic.
I crave this stuff way too often! This is such a great recipe and it’s so easy to make at home! Your photos have me craving it again 😉
I liked it a lot and I love garlic but I think since I didn’t press the garlic maybe that made it strong. I will try it again, is flour or garlic powder part of the ingridients ?
No, flour and garlic powder are not part of the ingredients.
Hi, I made this today but somehow It tasted garlicky 🙁 in an earlier comment someone said something about garlic powder/flour? Is that part of the ingridients, I didn’t see them.
Jackie, if you are not a fan of garlic flavor, feel free to omit or reduce this ingredient as needed.
hi,
just wondering, do you know an alternative to heavy cream to use in this recipe? i was trying greek yogurt, but it totally curdled…. am i suppose to whisk it in ? or ?
thanks,
v
You can certainly substitute Greek yogurt but I cannot speak for how much this will change the overall taste/texture of the dish. It is always best to use the ingredients listed in the recipe to obtain the best results possible.
I love Olive Garden alfredo but they never give you enough! Can’t wait to make it! About the cloves of garlic, will they be chunky in the sauce?
That really depends on how finely you chop them. You can always use a garlic press to avoid any kind of “chunkiness”.
I know it’s been years, but I can’t be the only one still looking at this recipe and reading comments. LOL I use my microplane zester on my garlic cloves. It pulverizes them so there are no chunks, and it’s so much easier and quicker to clean than a press. 🙂
That sounds fantastic! Totally agree it is all about balance. You run 4 miles, you get to eat delicious Alfredo sauce 🙂
Awesome! I printed the recipe out! Great photos! Cute Dog! Thanks!
Would using half n half work instead of heavy cream? Trying to save a trip to the store. Thx
Yes, that should work just fine. But be sure to substitute half & half for both the milk and heavy cream.
This looks yummy…Glad to find this recipe. Went to a restaurant last night and ordered Alfredo pasta..Not so happy about it 🙁
now will just prepare it myself..
Thanks!
Lovely post! Looks so yummy.
Love the shrimp in the sauce – sounds great!