How To Thicken Alfredo Sauce

Oh, those creamy noodles piled high, sauced with that distinctive tangy parmesan, rich butter, and flavorful garlic!

The delectable aroma of pungent and sweet Italian cheeses.

Yesss! Maybe your favorite dish has tender slices of chicken, or is heavy with pink shrimp and fragrant chopped basil!

Who has time for thin, weak sauce, though? 

Here’s how to thicken alfredo sauce, learn the best way to reheat fettucine alfredo, get my recipe for garlic alfredo, and more!

Lush with gorgeous, decadent sauce, Fettucine alfredo has a history as rich and wonderful as the homemade alfredo sauce itself.

While the earliest records of the dish appear to be a simple ensemble of butter and cheese tossed with the pasta, today’s recipe is luxuriant with tons of cream and spices, too!

The ceremony of tossing the pasta table-side for wide-eyed and hungry diners was part of the fun, cooked up by the dish’s namesake: Alfredo di Lelio.

My father’s side of the family were Italian through and through, yet I don’t recall eating much alfredo growing up.

Perhaps because of the cost of rich ingredients was, perhaps, a bit too rich for my folks.

But I learned in my 30s to play with a simple alfredo sauce recipe, trying to imitate the famous Olive Garden recipe.

Some mistakes were made: I have seized up a few pots, or the sauce separated mercilessly.

Some were too gritty, too “sticky” (too much cheese, if you can imagine) or too runny, or in some cases lacked the flavor of true distinctive alfredo.

Today, my recipe for how to make alfredo sauce changes a bit every time I make it because I use what I have on hand, but lots of garlicky, tangy-cheese flavor is what makes alfredo alfredo and not just a white sauce.

Always make more alfredo than you think you will need or use, because, well, just because. It’s versatile!

The higher quality of ingredients you go, the more elevated this sauce will be.

That said, even cheap cheese, generic butter and half-and-half are going to create a great alfredo, because ANY alfredo sauce is better than NO alfredo sauce!

Let’s start with a recipe.

When using any of the methods listed below remember to start with small amounts of the thickener at a time.

Give it time to cook through before adding more.

Will Alfredo sauce thicken as it cools?

Yes, a proper alfredo sauce will thicken as it cools. However, alfredo sauce is best served HOT, or at least warm, so keep the pot on low until ready to plate, stirring occasionally.

The desired thickness of an alfredo sauce is completely subjective to the chef. Some folks like it to be a bit thin and some like it extra thick.

The key factor is that you want your alfredo sauce to completely coat the pasta.

How to make alfredo sauce with milk

You can sub out quite a few of the ingredients in an alfredo and still come out with a lovely sauce. There are three ingredients that really need to be there, though: Milk, garlic and at least one dry Italian cheese.

Sub out butter for olive oil or margarine. Sub out fresh garlic and just use all garlic powder, same for the onion. Cut cream with water or milk.

Use 2% milk and just use more thickener like starch or flour. You can use cheap shaker cheese, margarine, and plenty of people swear by cream cheese, which you can use to replace a fat and 1/2 the milk.

Remember, you can make it your own, with as much cheese and garlic flavor, thick or thin as you like.

• 2 c. of milk: skim, 2%, or whole
• 1/2 c. of butter, oil, or margarine
• 1 ½ c. of shaker parmesan cheese
• 3 t. garlic powder
• 3 t. onion powder
• 4 T. thickening agent like flour or cornstarch

Combine and follow the instructions in the recipe above.

An easy way to thicken alfredo sauce

Sometimes the sauce alone seems too thin but when we add it with the pasta, the combination of the two will actually thicken the sauce.

• Cook your noodles normally and drain them thoroughly.
• Add a splash of olive oil to the noodles and stir.
• Add the noodles to the alfredo sauce and stir.
• Allow the combination to simmer on low.
• Stir often for about 7 minutes.
• Check consistency of the sauce.
• If the sauce is still too thin for your liking, slowly stir in up to ½ cup of parmesan cheese.

How to thicken alfredo sauce with flour

Note that the instructions below use all-purpose wheat flour but you could substitute other types of flour such as arrowroot starch, tapioca flour, or a gluten-free blend like Pamela’s.

• Whisk together 3 tablespoons of flour and 3 tablespoons of COOL or cold water until combined 
• Slowly pour in the flour mixture as you whisk the simmering alfredo sauce 
• Continue to stir and simmer for 5 minutes before attempting another thickening method 

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How to thicken alfredo sauce with a roux

There are many types of roux but for the sake of this recipe, a roux is a mixture of butter and flour.

This type of roux is a great way to thicken a sauce but it will add some richness, so keep that in mind.

• Combine until smooth: 3 T. of melted, slightly cooled butter and 3 T. of flour 
• Slowly whisk in the mixture to simmering alfredo sauce until combined 
• Continue to stir and simmer for 5 minutes. (We love this set of three small whisks.)

How to thin alfredo sauce

When cooking alfredo sauce and pasta, it is always a good idea to keep a cup of pasta water set aside. It contains starch that is often used to thicken sauces, so might as well put it to work.

Use a ladle to scoop out a cup of pasta water before you drain your pasta in a colander or pasta pot. This can be quite helpful if your alfredo sauce turns out too thick.

• Slowly stir in 3 T. of pasta water to your simmering pot of alfredo. 
• Stir alfredo sauce completely. 
• If the sauce is still too thick, stir in 1 T. of liquid at a time. You don’t want to use too much at once or you can go back and forth with thick/thin and lose that luscious parmesan flavor, ending up with white gravy.

How to reheat alfredo sauce

Alfredo sauce is a very rich, dense sauce, full of dairy fat, which means it’s going to be near-solid when it is chilled. The trick to reheating alfredo is to reheat it slowly, on medium-low heat—and that means to choose the stove top over the microwave.

Portion out only the sauce you need into a cold pot. Add in a 2 T. of dairy: melted butter, half-n-half, heavy cream, or milk. Whisk gently as the pot warms. Slow and low is the key, while you whisk to bring together the cold fats in your sauce.

How to reheat fettucine alfredo ​

You may have noticed that your container of alfredo pasta is quite the dense clump when you take it out of the fridge the next day.

Separating the noodles while cold can cause them to break into rather un-tasty-looking pieces. Many a plate of leftovers has been microwaved and the result is dry, stiff noodles coated with dusty cheese, swimming in pools of grease.

So what happened?

The alfredo ingredients have basically separated, and now we need to emulsify them—or bring them back together—so your leftovers are as tasty as the night before.

Let your container sit on the counter for 10-15 minutes so it gets a bit closer to room temperature. On the stovetop, bring out a pan and as gently as possible, add your leftovers to the pan or pot.

Turn the heat to low. As the noodles lose their grip on one another (about five minutes) start by adding 1 T. of dairy (butter, cream, or milk) for every cup of leftover alfredo pasta.

Gently toss the pasta as it heats through, about another five minutes. Plate and eat while it’s steaming.

What’s your favorite type of pasta noodle to all hold all that delicious alfredo?

Cook fresh pasta in the microwave with this cool gadget.