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Olive Garden Alfredo Sauce

February 3, 2009

Olive Garden alfredo sauce is a rich, creamy sauce that can be made at home.  This recipe for Olive Garden Alfredo Sauce was one of the first ones we attempted to recreate; it’s one of my favorite recipes of all time.  This recipe is simple, butter, cream cheese, and a little bit of patience, and everyone will think you are a five star chef.

Olive Garden Alfredo Sauce Recipe

 

 

Olive Garden Alfredo Sauce

Author: CopyKat Recipes
Recipe Type: Pasta, Main dish
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 15 min
Serves: 4
Make Alfredo sauce just like the Olive Garden, one try with this dish, and you will never buy bottled or a package of Alfredo sauce again.
Ingredients
  • 1 pint of heavy cream
  • 1/4 pound of butter (one stick)
  • 2 tablespoons cream cheese
  • 1/2 - 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions

In a saucepan, combine butter, heavy cream, and cream cheese. Simmer until all is melted and mixed well. Add the Parmesan cheese and garlic powder. Simmer for 15 ñ 20 minutes on low. You may wish to add a little salt and pepper. I have made this with half and half, but we prefer the heavy cream.

I wouldn't recommend trying it with plain milk.

You can find more Olive Garden Recipes at Copykat.com.

  • Melanie

    There website posts recipes and both of the alfredo ones on here are different from what they posted… I have made it a couple times. A friend told me that they forgot to post to put a stick of butter in the recipe as well. So I’ve done that… never tried making it without the butter.

    1 1/2 cup milk
    1 1/2 cup heavy cream
    1/2 cup imported Parmesan cheese, grated
    1/2 cup imported Romano cheese, grated
    6 egg yolks from fresh jumbo eggs
    Salt and black pepper to taste

    Procedures
    1.HEAT milk and cream in a heavy bottom saucepan until it begins to simmer. Turn off heat. Slowly whip in cheese, then remove from heat.
    2.PLACE egg yolks in a separate bowl and slowly whip in a portion of the hot milk and cream mixture. Slowly add egg yolk mixture back into remaining cream mixture. Place back on very low heat and continually stir until simmering. Take sauce off heat so it thickens. (This will increase temperature of egg yolks, known as tempering).
    3.SEASON to taste with salt and black pepper. Serve over your favorite pasta.

  • http://www.copykat.com Stephanie Manley

    Olive Garden doesn’t put their recipes online that they like to serve in their restaurants. Often they are vastly different. They post tasty recipes online, but their alfredo sauce doesn’t have eggs in it.

  • Anonymous

    thats because there sauces are made by nestle.

  • the violator

    Anonymous for the win…
    First, you people *seriously* think that Olive Garden’s food is palatable?
    Second, you think they actually make it from scratch??? At a corporate chain restaurant?

  • NolinParker

    I worked for a catering company several years ago which claimed to have the Olive Garden Alfredo Sauce recipe….and everyone who tasted it agreed. I have misplaced the recipe showing the measurements, but I can tell you that we used several scoops of Knorr Alfredo Sauce Mix (institutional size) along with lots of grated parmesan cheese and heavy whipping cream. If I ever find the recipe I will send it in to post.

  • http://copykat.com What?

    Okay, what is will the post about "think Olive Garden’s food is palatable"?
    Yes, I do think at one time they did make it form scratch; whether they do now is a different matter. Have you ever tried reheating alfredo sauce? It is not easy to achieve reheating the sauce to exactly the same texture and taste; in fact, it is very hard to do(the more butter in the sauce, the harder it is to do so). The post for the Olive Garden Sauces are a least a three years old based on my earlier copy.

  • Johnnie

    I work for Olive Garden and I can tell you that their sauces are made from scratch. However you are right about the recipe on the website not being the one they use. Unfortunately, I’m not able to give that recipe.

  • Anonymous

    I have made this many times from this recipe and all people do is rave over how great the taste is. I also add grilled chicken to mine or put it over cheese ravioli’s. This recipe is awesome!!!

  • jordyn

    how many servings does this recipe yield?

  • http://www.copykat.com Stephanie

    You can make 4 very large servings, or 6 to 8 smaller servings with this amount of sauce.

  • http://www.almostdinnertime.blogspot.com Susan

    I love this recipe and have been using it for almost 10 years. The only thing I do different is I add salt to taste and it is perfect. It’s the best alfredo sauce I’ve ever had and I can’t bear to order it in a restaurant because it will never compare to this recipe!!! I would love to feature this recipe on my blog sometime.

  • Jacquelyn

    Ive been making this recipe for about 3 years and everyone I make it for absolutely loves it! I have even gone to Olive Garden and ordered just a large salad and breadsticks and everyone thought I bought the sauce too! I love it and this is a quick and easy recipe! My fiance’ can even do it without the recipebook!

  • Judy Nutzmann

    I had heavy cream left over from Christmas so the end of December I made this recipe, I made about triple the recipe and froze it. Last week I cooked it I added cooked chicken served it over cheese tortellini for my grandchildren and husband they loved-loved-loved it and I did use the cream cheese. I’ve never made Alfredo Sauce (was so easy to open a jar) before because I thought it was a lot of work and I love to cook. This is the only recipe for Alfredo Sauce I will ever use, and no work at all.

    Thanks for sharing

  • Anonymous

    I worked at Olive Garden and they DO make their sauces and soups from scratch. Every day.

  • babygirl

    I can’t get this recipe to work half the time. It won’t let the butter stay mixed in it. It starts out good and mixed then as i let it simmer it seperates. What am I doing wrong. I have made it right before but I dont know what it is that i do different when it mixes well.

  • http://www.copykat.com Stephanie

    I would make a couple of suggestions, make sure the butter, and cream are very hot before adding the cheese, when you add the cheese whip it a great deal to make the mixture uniform. Also, some cheese that comes pre-shredded has an additive to keep the cheese from clumping together in the package. I really recommend shredding cheese just before you use it if you are going to melt it into a sauce.

  • gma22

    Thank you for this, I will definitely have to try it as I have tried alfredo at a dozen restaurants and never found the delicious taste of Olive Garden’s.

  • http://www.thrivearizona.shelfreliance.com/ThriveArizona Monica

    I have been using this recipe for years and everyone loves it! It’s easy, the ingredients are practical and I never have left overs to waste. I do add salt and pepper to taste and sometimes more cheese if I’m in the mood. Love it!! Thank you for sharing.

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  • Robin

    I have uses this recipe for years and my kids think it tastes better than O.G. I use exact recipe as it’s printed.

  • Dave

    I tried this with a little more cream cheese and it turned out delicious. Everybody thought I learned while I was living in Italy. Really, really good!

  • http://www.facebook.com/NCPrincessBows Heather C.

    Made this tonight and EVERYONE LOVED it! I will DEFINITELY be making this again!!! No more can Alfredo sauce for me!

  • P40tim

    Fantastic!!!!!

  • http://www.copykat.com/2011/08/02/new-video-how-to-make-olive-garden-alfredo-sauce/ New Video – How to Make Olive Garden Alfredo Sauce | CopyKat Recipes | Restaurant Recipes

    [...] Here is the link to the recipe for the Olive Garden Alfredo Sauce [...]

  • Jules

    I just gained a lb reading the recipe… sounds delicious.

  • Detric414

    if you go on olivegarden.com they give the recipe for their alfredo sauce

  • Kristy

    Just made this recipe and it was awesome. My kids loved it to, I added canned chicken breast to it.

  • Kristy

    I used real salted butter and it did fine no seperating.

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    [...] [...]

  • Shaun

    I love how simple and tasty this recipe is. We are feeding 70!!! (yes, 70), high school cross country runners before a big meet next week, and I would love to serve this this grilled chicken instead of the (now boring) regular marinara sauce…
    1. Any tips on the ingredient quantities?
    2. Will it ‘keep’ for an hour or so before serving without clumping, or spoiling?
    Thanks :)

  • Anonymous

    I would suggest making the sauce in bulk and then keeping it warm in crock pots, this should work.

  • Shaun

    Hi Stephanie – we will use an electric turkey roaster on a low setting to keep the bulk sauce warm. I’d be grateful on a tip for the ingredient quantities i will need to make this large volume of sauce? Can you help please?
    Thanks so much for your help :)
    Shaun

  • Shaun

    Hi Stephanie – we will use an electric turkey roaster on a low setting to keep the bulk sauce warm. I’d be grateful on a tip for the ingredient quantities i will need to make this large volume of sauce? Can you help please?
    Thanks so much for your help :)
    Shaun

  • Anonymous

    To be honest, I don’t know how many batches you will need, I would guess 7 to 10. I would simply multiply the ingredients by 7 to 10 times. I think you would be better off making the sauce in smaller batches, and then combining in the turkey roaster. Again, I would make 7 to 10 batches, and I would multiply my ingredients by how many batches I decided on.

  • pinky

    this is totally off the olive garden alfredo sauce not even close

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  • Anonymous

    We really should stay away from canned stuff whenever possible. This was so easy wasn’t it?

  • Anonymous

    If you have any left over, which is hard to imagine, store the sauce in its own container. Reheat on the stove top is best, and you may need to add a little more cream as the sauce may thicken.

  • Anonymous

    Their recipe for the alfredo sauce contains 4 or 6 egg yolks, I really don’t think you need to add that many egg yolks to make alfredo sauce. I have never seen a recipe for the alfredo sauce that contained egg yolks except theirs.

  • Ms Zayda

    Okay…so I made this receipe today without the cream cheese and it was soooo good! My daughter said it tasted just like Olive garden! I also subtituted powder garlic with minced garli and added romano cheese!! So Good!! Thanks for the receipe!!!

  • Anonymous

    I am glad to hear the recipe worked out well for you!

  • Bob

    she never put the cream cheese in

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  • John

    Made it for my daughter’s basketball team meal. They loved it!!! Sooo much cheaper then taking everyone out to Olive Garden.

  • John

    Made it for my daughter’s basketball team meal. They loved it!!! Sooo much cheaper then taking everyone out to Olive Garden.

  • http://www.whimsicalarchives.com/ Penny

    I kid you not, I get an extra dimple in my rear just thinking about this sauce.

  • Gues

    Don’t try many internet recipes, but this one just sounded so good! Glad I did, even the kids thought it was super yummy! Thanks! Now on to the next one! :)

  • Matt

    You can buy a pint of Alfredo sauce from Olive Garden for less than it cost to buy the ingredients to make this.

  • Davey_roxy

    Hmm I just made this recipe as shown in the video then to look underneath the video to find it needs cream cheese Stephanie Manley can you confirm cream cheese or no cream cheese and if so are we talking bagel cream cheese?

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    [...] it’s time to start the Alfredo sauce. Now this sauce, I cannot take credit for. I got it from this website. It’s a copy of Olive Garden’s Alfredo sauce, which is my absolute favorite place to [...]

  • Hillpriscilla

    It is soooooo delicious!! I have used it twice: one for chicken alfredo flat bread pizza and another one for chicken, shrimp, broccoli, and mushroom fettucina alfredo. I have never used a jar alfredo but I never will. It is really good!!! Thanks

  • http://www.copykat.com Stephanie

    It is simply too easy to make your own Alfredo sauce. Save the jar, make your own homemade Alfredo sauce.

  • DesertDiva

    I know when I make Spaghetti Carbonara & Creamy Mac & Cheese it calls for 4whole eggs. That’s what makes the silky/creamy texture : )