The Worst Ingredient To Add To Alfredo Sauce Might Surprise You

A hot bowl of pasta covered with creamy Alfredo sauce is a quintessential comfort food. While it's simple enough to improve any store-bought Alfredo sauce that lines grocery shelves, it's also quite easy (and better) to make it homemade so long as you mind a few things. For starters, many recipes might call for adding a brick of cream cheese to your sauce, but we're here to tell you that you should actually avoid that. Authentic Alfredo sauce recipes are simple. They contain only unsalted butter, grated Parmesan cheese, and pasta water. If this is the case, why do so many modern recipes call for cream cheese, and why should you avoid this ingredient?

Heavy cream has made its way into many recipes to amplify the sauce's silky texture and rich flavor. Since cream cheese has a similar consistency, it seems like a no-brainer to act as a replacement for heavy cream. It would add more body to the sauce and make it cling to the pasta easier ... right? Not necessarily. Even though heavy cream is the secret to Olive Garden's Alfredo sauce, it's not a necessary ingredient in the first place, which renders cream cheese unnecessary by default. When hot, starchy pasta water is mixed with cold butter and Parmesan cheese, it creates a rich, creamy sauce the authentic way — no need for anything else, just like Alfredo di Lelio intended when he made it in 1908.

A major appeal of Alfredo sauce is its light, smooth texture, but cream cheese can be too dense and develop a gritty or sticky texture when melted. The tangy flavor can also overpower the nutty taste of the Parmesan cheese, which is supposed to be the star of the show. Both of these factors ultimately detract from what an Alfredo sauce is supposed to be.

If you feel like an authentic Alfredo sauce is lacking in texture, thickness, or flavor and must add something else, there are alternatives to cream cheese that will result in a better finished product. If you feel like the flavor is lacking, simply add more Parmesan cheese. This will add more body to the sauce and infuse it with that classic Alfredo flavor profile while still remaining true to the original recipe.

You could also try adding Greek yogurt or sour cream. These will melt into a smooth consistency better than cream cheese does. However, both ingredients still have a tartness that can overpower the sauce's typical taste. The opposite is true of mascarpone cheese. It has a similar texture as cream cheese, so if you're a fan of the thickness it brings, this would be a good substitute for you. Since mascarpone has a sweeter and milder flavor, it also won't overpower the dish like cream cheese can. Another option is to turn cottage cheese into a creamy Alfredo-esque sauce by simply putting it in a food processor with some garlic and grated Parmesan, then blending it until smooth. This method is lower in fat and calories and tastes surprisingly close to the real thing. Adding cream cheese or one of these other alternatives isn't inherently wrong, but understanding how these extra ingredients affect your Alfredo sauce can help you make the best decision for your personal tastes.