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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I love alfredo… cant remember the last time that I enjoyed a bowl. Definitely inspired to recreate the recipe, looks delicious.
Your photos are so beautiful I think I’d just like to eat them !!! Never been to Olive Garden but why go if I can make this at home? We eat out a lot but Italiain dishes are generally made from our family recipes – that is, until I found your web site. Everything I have prepared from your recipes has been a winner and keeper. Here will be another. Thank You so much.
What size shrimp did you use ? This is going on the menu for this week ! Thanks so much.
I used medium-size shrimp, but feel free to use what you have on hand.
This may be a stupid question, but is the egg yolk a necessity? Or how can we tell that it is thoroughly cooked into the sauce? I am 34 weeks pregnant and tend to worry….
Not a stupid question at all! The egg yolk is a necessity in this dish, and the residual heat should cook it through completely without scrambling. But if you are concerned about consuming raw eggs, I recommend making this dish after your pregnancy.
This is the best I had by far!!!! So creamy and delicious! Thank you!
If I had any question about the safety of adding egg yolk, I would just use a candy or meat thermometer to make sure it gets to a safe temperature.
http://www.eggsafety.org/consumers/egg-safety
Also, here’s a slideshow about how to temper eggs, so you don’t end up scrambling the egg and ruining the sauce….
http://www.foodnetwork.com/how-to/photos/how-to-temper-eggs.html
Nice! This tip will come in handy for lots of recipes!
Newman’s Own has a pretty darn good jar alfredo sauce in a pinch it’s a winner. I’m a fan of Olive Garden too that is pretty much all I get there to be honest. I have never tried to make my own alfredo sauce before always thought it would be complex, this looks easy I will try it. Great blog too 🙂
Amazing! The photos look so great too 😀 Definitely worthy of a Saturday evening 😀 x
Love the roasted shrimp addition, this is alfredo perfection!
I am new to your site and I am already loving it! Love this recipe! I always order a side of this sauce just to dip the breadsticks in.
That’s genius!
The Alfredo sauce sounds fabulous! I am just wondering how you cooked your shrimp, showed in the pictures? Making this for dinner this week!
Heidi, feel free to prepare the shrimp to your taste preferences. I personally like to roast them at 400 degrees F for 6-8 minutes with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper.
This pasta looks wonderful!
Can’t wait to try this one too!
My eyes always light up when I see a recipe with Alfredo sauce! This looks divine and absolutely delicious! Pinned!
I’m allergic to dairy, do you have suggestions for a dairy free version, or would that throw the recipe completely off?
Unfortunately, I do not recommend a dairy-free version of this.
I just saw on the Today show, KLG and Hoda 10/7/14, a vegan version of alfredo made with cashews they said it was delicious.
Honestly I’ve made it without milk just alot of butter garlic salt n pepper and it’s good but the cream makes it .
Love your recipes!!! This one looks awesome too, but I don’t see anything about the shrimp that is shown in the pictures.
As indicated in the “Notes” section at the bottom of the recipe, you can easily adapt this recipe for your favorite add-ins, like shrimp or grilled chicken. I used shrimp, roasting them at 400 degrees F for 6-8 minutes with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper.
My son also likes it with pan seared scallops.
Very nice
Looks delightful! I want to tell you how much I enjoys your posts and recipes, thank you! I save almost every single email, you rock
Olive Garden ‘s Alfredo Sauce is one of my favorites. Love your site and your recipes. Your recipes always look so good and the ingredients are things I usually have around. So many blog sites use ingredients you have to run to specialty stores to buy. Thank you. I truly enjoy your site.
I have never once in my life craved alfredo sauce. Never. God, I wish I could crave that. It’s so much healthier than the chocolate and peanut butter I crave! Pinned 🙂
this sounds lovely, but I got a bit confused reading the instructions 🙁 where does the flour and garlic powder come in?
Thank you for letting me know – the recipe has been updated.
I am new to your site…everything looks “damn delicious”. Thanks for sharing.
Where are the shrimp in the recipe?
As indicated in the bottom of the recipe, this can easily be adapted to add shrimp or chicken, cooked to desired preferences.
Your right but you can add as much as you want. I also made some with grilled chicken , I had left over from last night’s dinner for my brother-in-law.
What flour? I don’t see it in the recipe. This is my husbands favorite dish at OG! Gotta try it.
Marion, there is no flour ingredient in this recipe.
This sounds all right but what about the parsley??? I don’t see t in your instructions
Denis, it is included in the instructions in the very last step:
Serve immediately, garnished with Parmesan and parsley, if desired.
Where’s the updated version? It is almost a year later and I’m still looking at the version without flour.
Rea, there is no flour or garlic powder in the updated recipe.
Hi, Theres no flour or garlic powder in the recipe. Please update so we can make and eat it. Thank you!
Lisa G, as mentioned previously, there is no flour or garlic powder in the updated recipe.
Well this is pretty close to the OG recipe. I was a line cook for OG for a few years back in the nineties. The only real differance is that there is NO salt added and the recipe only used heavy cream NO milk or eggs. The cheese and butter that OG used had plenty salt and thickening was achieved through reduction, as such, no eggs needed. Just to be clear OG is not authentic Italian, some of their sauces do come in a can but the Alfredo is made from scratch on site. Bon Appetite
One word: YUM!!!!
P.S. I added shrimp.
The linguine and shrimp turned out great. Next time extra large shrimp. Recipe was so easy. Thanks for the Pin