To take this pasta sauce further, try our Creamy Pasta with Pancetta and Peas for a flavour variation. Anyone looking for a simple recipe to pull out when time to make dinner is running short is in for a treat! This recipe for pasta cream sauce is as easy as it comes, yet it’s silky smooth and full of lovely flavour. It actually feels like a stretch for this to be called a recipe. It’s so easy and only has 3 ingredients. It is however what authentic Italian cream sauce is all about:
Ingredients
Creamy sauce for pasta could be known by many names. Alfredo sauce, Parmesan sauce, etc. Those names however, are not something that Italians actually use. Garlic, chicken stock, flour, milk. None of them are really needed to make a full flavour cream sauce for any types of pasta. No need to build more suspense though. Truth is all you need is cream, freshly grated parmesan cheese and a pinch of salt. Some recipes include milk or flour. This will lower the calories in the dish but will also reduce flavour. Not something I buy into! Instead, choose heavy cream with at least 36% fat. No need for flour thickener! You are probably wondering how could be that good when it’s so simple. I will say it again. Quality ingredients. That has always been the secret behind Italian cuisine. They use quality, fresh ingredients that bring lots of flavour with a minimum of fuss. This is the reason why so many Italian recipes are deceptively simple, with a limited list of ingredients, yet add up to remarkably tasty food. Using better ingredients means that you need less of them for great results. This recipe is a great example of how this works. The ingredient list is tiny, yet the creamy sauce is still wonderfully tasty!
Parmesan cheese
While you can use pre-grated Parmesan cheese, I wouldn’t recommend it. Once the cheese is grated and packaged, it immediately dries out and starts losing flavour. That means you would actually need more of pre-grated cheese to get enough flavour in your sauce. It will also be more difficult to incorporate it into the cream. Pre-grated cheese sold commercially is packed in anti-caking agent to prevent it from sticking. This will impact the texture of your sauce negatively. Buying a small, vacuum sealed piece of Parmesan and grating it yourself before adding to pasta sauces will always result in a more flavourful and creamier dish.
Substitutions and variations
This recipe for pasta cream sauce is a basic combination to which you can add all kinds of things to make it more interesting like this Creamy Tagliatelle with Bacon, Portobello Mushrooms and Truffle Oil. If you are bored with plain creamy sauce, make it more interesting by adding a spoonful of tomato paste or even sun-dried tomato pesto like I did in my recipe for Tortelloni with Creamy Tomato Sauce. The sauce works as a base on which other flavours can be layered. This doesn’t mean that this sauce isn’t delicious as it is. But you can easily add in protein like chicken or shrimp. Or vegetables like broccoli and asparagus. It all works, and makes this amazing sauce a recipe you can turn to over and over again!
Serving suggestions
This creamy sauce is best suited for long pasta shapes such as fettuccine or tagliatelle. But no need to get too fussy about it, so feel free to use any pasta you have on hand. It’s a rich sauce so best to keep any dishes you serve with it light and fresh. I serve vegetable side dishes like Lemon Garlic Green Beans with Parmesan Cheese or a fresh Caprese Salad. Both stick with the Italian theme while bringing a burst of freshness to the meal.
Storage and leftovers
While leftover pasta is worth keeping around for an easy and convenient lunch option, truth is that it’s not quite the same the next day. The pasta will inevitably lost its al dente texture, even if it remains tasty. Refrigerated leftovers can be kept for three days and is best warmed up in a microwave. Frozen pasta can become far too soggy, so best not to freeze.
More creamy pasta recipes
Chicken and Bacon Pasta Orzo Pasta with Roasted Butternut Squash Creamy Salmon Pasta with Mixed Greens Easy Carbonara Sauce Tagliatelle with Truffle Sauce
