White Bean Alfredo Recipe - | Healthy Pasta Sauce (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to thick Alfredo sauce? ›

Add Cheese

The key ingredient in Alfredo sauce is cheese—generally Parmigiano Reggiano—and lots of it. To thicken Alfredo sauce, simply add more cheese than the amount called for in a recipe until you achieve the consistency you want.

Seasonings, spices, and fresh herbs: this is definitely a great way to give your Alfredo sauce a more personal flavor. The most obvious choice is black pepper, but you can also add parsley and thyme, or dried herbs like oregano.

What is the Correct Ratio of Sauce to Pasta? Many people wonder how much sauce to use when cooking pasta. For tomato-based sauces, a good rule of thumb to follow is to use one jar of 24-ounce pasta sauce for every 16-ounce package of pasta.

Bring the butter-cream mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer gently, uncovered about 3 to 5 minutes. Cook the sauce gently until it begins to thicken, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon. You'll know the Alfredo sauce recipe is thick enough when it coats the back of your spoon.

Fresh herbs will brighten and freshen the flavor of the sauce. Resnick suggests using parsley, thyme, oregano, or chervil, or mixing and matching depending on what you like. To use them, finely mince 2 tablespoons of your chosen herbs. Heartier herbs like thyme or oregano can be added in to simmer with the sauce.

Extra seasonings and spices will go a long way in adding flavor to a boring jar of sauce. Some of my personal favorites include salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, dried basil, oregano, onion powder or seasoned salt. Start with small amounts (1/2 teaspoon at a time) and add as needed, in order to avoid over-spicing.

Mix together a little cornstarch in a small bowl with some cold water (or other liquid) until the mixture is smooth to form a slurry. Slowly, whisk the slurry into the simmering sauce in a pan over medium to medium-high heat. Whisk the slurry slowly into the hot sauce until you get the desired thickness.

Alfredo should never have anything but pasta water, butter, and cheese in it. Make sure the cooking water has salt in it but remember part is salty.

What is authentic Alfredo made of? ›

Real alfredo sauce is made with 3 simple ingredients: butter, Parmesan cheese and fresh fettuccine pasta. There is absolutely no cream in this dish (cream is common in most American-style alfredo sauce recipes). Make this dish with my fresh homemade pasta, fresh sourdough pasta or store-bought fresh pasta.

The Fix Is Simple—Add Water Back.

A generous splash of water is all it takes. Here's how fix a broken sauce: Add about ¼ cup of water to the pan and reheat the sauce to a vigorous simmer, whisking constantly. The bubbling action will help re-emulsify the butter and bring back that thick, glossy sauce.

As a general guideline, a jar of spaghetti sauce typically contains around 24 to 26 ounces (680 to 737 grams) of sauce. If you prefer a lighter coating of sauce, you can typically use about half a jar (approximately 12 to 13 ounces or 340 to 370 grams) for one pound (16 ounces or 454 grams) of pasta.

For tomato-based sauces, they recommend a quarter-cup to a half-cup of sauce (2 to 4 ounces) per serving of pasta, which should be roughly one cup cooked (or 2 ounces).

Cooking pasta in the sauce instead of in boiling water will increase the amount of time it takes to cook through. It's a good technique to use if you want to delay serving your pasta for a few minutes. Make sure to keep the sauce thinned out with pasta water as the pasta finishes cooking if you use this method.

The most readily available sauce-thickener is flour. For a too-thin sauce, try adding a slurry (equal parts flour and water, whisked together) or beurre manie (equal parts softened butter and flour, kneaded together to form a paste)—both are ideal thickeners for rich and creamy sauces, such as steak sauce recipes.

Cornstarch: Make a slurry of half water, half cornstarch and whisk until smooth. Cornstarch is a powerful thickener, so start by whisking in no more than 1 tablespoon of the mixture per 2 cups of simmering sauce; stir and simmer for 2 minutes, check the thickness, and repeat with more slurry as needed.

After 12 ounces of fettuccine pasta noodles are finished cooking, reserve 2 cups of the pasta water to include in your sauce. The starchy water is essential to creating a thick, creamy sauce consistency.