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Olive Garden’s Alfredo Sauce

Make Olive Garden’s Alfredo Sauce Recipe at home in just 20 minutes! Pair it with Fettuccine for an easy dinner idea the whole family will love!

Love Olive Garden Copycat Recipes?! Try these Chicken Gnocchi or Zuppa Toscana Soup recipes next!

Overhead view of a skillet full of Fettuccine Alfredo with kitchen tongs in the middle.

I know it’s a restaurant chain, but honestly, Olive Garden’s Alfredo Sauce recipe is just perfect in my book. Hands-down. Chain or no chain, I love it.

(And you won’t believe how easy it is to make at home!)

PRO Tips For Making Olive Garden Alfredo Sauce:

  • Olive Garden’s Alfredo Sauce recipe is made with Parmesan and Romano Cheeses, however you can also incorporate Mozzarella, Gruyere, Gouda, or Asiago. You can also just use Parmesan.
  • You can use half and half instead of half heavy cream/half milk.
  • If you only have evaporated milk, just use half the amount of milk and replace the other half with water. You won’t compromise flavor or consistency by doing this in creamy sauces like this one.
  • You can even experiment with different pastas. I like fettuccine because the noodles soak up that thick sauce well, and Tortellini Alfredo with Broccoli is delicious as well!

How to Make Alfredo Sauce

Melt the butter. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute.

A skillet with melted butter and minced garlic in it.

Whisk in the flour. Add heavy cream and milk. Gradually whisk in the cheese.

Final steps in making Alfredo sauce by adding cheese to a pot and stirring it into the sauce

Add cooked Fettuccine. Sauce will continue to thicken upon standing.

Tip: I like to use 3/4 lb. of fettuccine for saucier pasta, but this recipe will satisfy a full pound as well.

A skillet with Fettuccine Alfredo being added to it and mixed into the sauce.

Creamy Fettuccine Alfredo in a skillet with rolls in the background.

Tips for Extra-Creamy Sauce

  • Use blocks of (high-quality) cheese and shred it yourself for extra creamy results. Bagged shredded cheese has cellulose added to it to prevent the cheese from sticking together in the bag. Cellulose repels moisture, which makes it melt poorly in comparison to shredding the cheese yourself.
  • Let the cheese come down to room temperature before adding it to the sauce.
  • Sprinkle in the cheese gradually, the sauce should be warm but not too hot. Otherwise the dairy will separate and the consistency will be grainy.
  • High-quality butter is important. I like Land O’ Lakes brand.

⭐Pro Tip: Alfredo sauce continues to thicken upon standing, and thickens even more when it’s added to pasta. Refrain from adding additional cheese to thicken it up.

This recipe is in The Cozy Cookbook on page 132!


Making Alfredo Sauce Ahead of Time

  • Alfredo sauce is a convenient make-ahead and freezable sauce. Unlike some other cheese sauces, the flour in this recipe helps it to maintain it’s consistency when cooled and reheated.
  • It can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
  • It can also be frozen and is best if used within 1-2 months.

How to Reheat Alfredo Sauce

  • Alfredo sauce will thicken up and harden as it cools, but can be easily microwaved or slowly reheated on the stove top. Reheating in a makeshift double boiler is the best reheating method to restore it back to it’s original form.  (Either by itself or when combined with pasta.)
  • Frozen Alfredo sauce should be thawed overnight in the fridge before heating.
  • If the sauce is too thick when reheated, add a splash of milk or chicken broth to thin it out.

A skillet filled with Fettuccine Alfredo with kitchen tongs pulling noodles up.

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Fettuccine Alfredo sprinkled with parsley in a white bowl with rolls in the background.

Did You Make This Recipe?

I would love for you to leave a rating and a comment below! How’d you do?! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Overhead view of a pan filled with Creamy Fettuccine Alfredo with kitchen tongs.

Olive Garden Alfredo Sauce

4.97 from 401 ratings
Make Olive Garden's Alfredo Sauce Recipe at home in just 20 minutes! Pair it with Fettuccine for an easy dinner idea the whole family will love!

Ingredients

  • 6 Tablespoons salted butter, high quality
  • 1 Tablespoon garlic, minced
  • 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1 ½ cups heavy cream
  • 1 ½ cups whole milk, 1% or 2% can be used if needed
  • ½ cup Parmesan cheese, grated and at room temperature
  • ½ cup Romano cheese, grated and at room temperature
  • Salt and black pepper, to taste
  • 1 lb. Fettuccine
  • Parsley, to garnish

Instructions

  • Boil the fettuccine according to package instructions. As the water preheats, begin the sauce.
  • Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook for one minute.
  • Whisk in the flour and cook for 1 minute, stirring continuously.
  • Add the heavy cream in splashes, stirring continuously. Add the milk in the same manner.
  • Bring to a gentle bubble, then reduce heat to low to bubble. It will continue to thicken as it simmers.
  • Slowly stir in the cheese. Taste and season with salt/pepper if desired.
  • Drain the pasta and carefully mix it into the sauce until well incorporated. The pasta will absorb the sauce and it will continue to thicken.
  • Garnish with chopped parsley and serve!

Notes

Note: You may be tempted to add more cheese to thicken to sauce, but it continues to thicken upon standing and even when added to the pasta.

For Saucier Pasta: Use 3/4 lb. pasta instead of a full pound.

Pro Tips for Reheating:

  • Alfredo sauce will thicken up and harden as it cools, but can be easily microwaved or slowly reheated on the stove top. Reheating in a makeshift double boiler is the best reheating method to restore it back to it's original form. 
  • Frozen Alfredo sauce should be thawed overnight in the fridge before heating.
  • If the sauce is too thick when reheated, add a splash of milk or chicken broth to thin it out.
  • Be sure to serve this with my Olive Garden Salad!

This recipe is in The Cozy Cookbook on page 132!

The nutritional information is an estimate and is per serving. There are 6 servings in this recipe.

Nutrition

Calories: 624kcal, Carbohydrates: 62g, Protein: 20g, Fat: 33g, Saturated Fat: 20g, Cholesterol: 153mg, Sodium: 399mg, Potassium: 357mg, Fiber: 3g, Sugar: 2g, Vitamin A: 925IU, Vitamin C: 2mg, Calcium: 347mg, Iron: 2mg
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This Olive Garden Alfredo sauce recipe comes straight from the restaurant itself! It takes just 15 minutes to make, and pairs perfectly with fettuccine. | The Cozy Cook | #pasta #italianfood #olivegarden #alfredosauce #comfortfood #fettuccine #copycatrecipe #meatless

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1,027 comments on “Olive Garden’s Alfredo Sauce”

  1. Hi. Ex prep chef for Olive Garden. This is similar but not the Olive Garden recipe.

    •2 T melted unsalted butter
    •1 tsp minced garlic
    •1 large canister Kraft Parmesan; sifted
    •1 pkg Knorr white sauce powder
    •1 pint heavy whipping cream
    •1 C milk
    •dash of black pepper

    Sift Parmesan, add pepper, set aside in large bowl.

    Melt butter in heavy skillet. Add garlic just as butter melt and sweat it for one minute (no stirring!). Whisk in Knorr. Add heavy cream and milk. Whisk continuously until sauce reaches 186.5° (you’ll get used to how it looks boiling at this temp over time). 

    Pour sauce into sifted parm and whisk until smooth. 

    • Thanks for sharing Violet! I got this recipe from Olive Garden’s website back in the day when they used to post them. We’ve had a decent amount of OG chefs comment on this recipe in the past, and I do believe that they are all sharing the recipes that they prepared at Olive Garden, but they definitely also vary. I’m not sure why, other than I suppose it must somehow vary by location. Perhaps due to what specific ingredients are available in that region. The Kraft Parmesan cheese is not something that I would personally recommend as it contains cellulose, which prevents it from clumping together in the canister, but it also prevents it from melting well in sauces! 🙂

      • The white sauce powder eliminates the concerns with the Kraft cheese. I’m sure your recipe is superior. This was the one used in the early 1990’s when everything was prepared in store, even the dressing (which is mostly just wishbone with some extras). 

  2. Stephanie – oh my goodness!
       I made this yesterday for Sunday lunch for the family.  No one could stop eating it, myself included. They kept saying it is so much better than Olive Garden. We all do a summer vacation together and this was requested for one of the dinner meals.  Thank you for a real find.  This is without a doubt a keeper.

    • I’m so happy the family loved it so much Janet! My picky daughter requests this one a lot, and I don’t mind at all lol! Thanks so much for the great comments and for taking the time to leave a review!😃

  3. This recipe is delicious, it was easy to follow and can be prepared in a short amount of time. It is a frequent request from my family. Thank you so my!🍽️❤️👩‍🍳

  4. thatlooks so good

  5. Do you happen to know how much a serving size is?

  6. If I doubled the recipe would you double the butter also or ?

    • Yes, you would want to double everything, you’ll want a very wide skillet so that the liquid can evaporate similarly, allowing it to thicken 🙂

  7. Never made Alfredo sauce before my kids have bought jar sauce before and it was not good we only like Olive Gardens so I thought why not try and make it … this was pretty spot on!!! The only thing I didn’t like was how thick it was so next time Im going to try it with out flour 

    • Hi Rebecca! I’m so happy that you loved it!! 🙂 The wider the surface area is of the skillet that you use, the quicker the liquid will evaporate and the thicker it will be. (Also, the longer it simmers, the thicker it gets!)- Just a few tips! Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a review, I really appreciate it! -Stephanie

  8. This recipe is a really good base, but I strongly felt it needed more than the salt and pepper. I use parmesan cheese and mozzarella, but what made it better was the extra garlic powder that I added along with oregano and basil. That really did the trick and pushed this to what, for me, made it a 5-star recipe. Thank you for the base recipe, it is great.

    • You got it Annmarie! It’s definitely a great base to play around with, but this is advertised as Olive Garden’s Alfredo Sauce, which is why it doesn’t have some of the additions have you mentioned. I think if I strayed from that tradition I’d get kicked off the internet. 😂 I too love to add herbs and different cheeses (and several examples of those are also on my site!) but this is just meant to be what you’d find at Olive Garden. ❤️

    • Why on earth did you feel the need to post a completely different recipe saying the NEW and totally different recipe was worth of five stars? It’s so ridiculous how people need to change a recipe and then boast about how much better theirs “may” be than what’s posted on the blog. 

  9. Thank you for sharing. I missed seeing the posting of it during the Pandemic. [So, I am subbing and going to look at other recipes you have, TCC …]

  10. Delicious!!! Was just thick & cheesy enough without being too much. By far, the best alfredo recipe I’ve tried … and there have been MANY!

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