Thursday, January 8, 2009

Super Easy Alfredo Sauce

This stuff is super easy and WAY better than the stuff in the jar, in my opinion.  Adapted from allrecipes.com.  

Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter
1 (4 ounce) package cream cheese
1 teaspoons garlic powder
1 cups milk
3 ounces grated Parmesan cheese
dash ground black pepper
dash nutmeg (optional)
3 T chopped fresh parsley (optional)

Directions:
- Melt butter in a medium, non-stick saucepan over medium heat. 
- Add cream cheese and garlic powder, stirring with wire whisk until smooth. 
- Add milk, a little at a time, whisking to smooth out lumps. 
- Stir in Parmesan, pepper, and nutmeg. 
- Remove from heat when sauce reaches desired consistency. Sauce will thicken rapidly, thin with milk if cooked too long. 
- Top with parsley and serve over hot pasta. 

Modifications that I made:
- I didn't have parmesan, so I used shredded mozzarella.  The flavor was definitely milder, but it was still really good.  I also added 1/2 tsp. of salt to pick up the flavor a little bit (which I probably would not do with the parmesan).  
- The original recipe serves 8 at LEAST.  The amounts above are cutting the recipe in half.
- I used low-fat cream cheese and 1% milk, and it was creamy as EVER.  Still probably not healthy, but way better than the original.  I bet you could use no-fat cream cheese and skim milk, and still get a super creamy and delicious sauce.
- I threw in some steamed broccoli at the end when I tossed it with the pasta (yum).  I bet it would be good with chicken and/or mushrooms, too.

1 comment:

Tori said...

I have a recipe that is similar to this one and I use no fat cream cheese and reduced fat Parmesan cheese and it works great. I have also found that if you just add all the ingredients together and heat them up together you don't have the lump problem.