Alfredo sauce
- Prepare
- less than 30 mins
- Cook
- less than 10 mins
- Serve
- Serves 4
A brilliantly simple sauce to have in your repertoire, Alfredo is the perfect partner for pasta, chicken or white fish.
Ingredients
- 30g/1oz salted butter
- 2 large garlic cloves, chopped or crushed
- ½ tbsp dried Italian or mixed herbs
- 300ml/½ pint double cream
- 75g/2¾oz Parmesan, grated
- handful fresh flatleaf parsley, roughly chopped (optional)
- sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
Method
Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed frying pan over a medium-low heat. Add the garlic along with a pinch of salt and gently fry for 2–3 minutes until the garlic has just started to turn golden.
Sprinkle in the dried herbs and fry for a further few seconds then pour in the cream. Allow the cream to come to a gentle simmer, stirring regularly to ensure it doesn’t stick.
Once just simmering, add the grated Parmesan and stir until melted and a thick, smooth sauce is achieved. Season generously with freshly cracked black pepper and salt as required.
Use the sauce in your desired dish at this stage, otherwise allow to cool and store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days. The sauce can be finished with a handful of roughly chopped parsley, if you like.
Recipe tips
This quantity of sauce is perfect for 350–400g/12–14oz dried pasta. Simply fold the warm sauce through cooked pasta, loosening with a little pasta water if required. Finish with chopped fresh parsley and some extra grated Parmesan.
This sauce is traditionally used with fettuccine pasta, but tagliatelle, pappardelle or even spaghetti would work well.
You can add the rind of your parmesan (don't throw these away!) to the sauce during the initial simmering. Remove it before stirring through your pasta.
