Creamy Garlic Parmesan Sauce

Why You'll Love This Recipe:

• This is a quick and easy 15-minute recipe.
• It has a deliciously creamy, cheesy, and garlicky flavor.
• It is great as a pasta sauce, as a pizza topping, served with grilled meats, and also goes well with seafood and veggies.

Ingredients In This Recipe

You can download a printable version of this recipe below. It lists all the ingredients you need and gives clear, step-by-step instructions to help you make it.

• Butter - We always use salted butter for our recipes, but unsalted butter can also be used. The fat from the butter adds to the flavor of this sauce.
• Dried Italian seasoning, if you do not have an Italian seasoning mix, you can use any one, or a combination of these dried herbs, basil, oregano, thyme, or parsley.
• Flour - use all-purpose (or plain flour) this will help the sauce thicken and give it a creamy texture.
• Stock - You can use either chicken broth or vegetable stock these can made from scratch, store-bought, or made with water and stock powders or cubes.
• Heavy cream
• Garlic, use freshly minced garlic for the best flavor, but bottled grated garlic will also work.
• Parmesan cheese, freshly grated, or use a good quality grated Parmesan cheese. This recipe uses ¾ cup grated parmesan, but if you love an extra cheesy sauce use 1 cup parmesan cheese.
• Salt is optional, and you may not even need these because you may find that the sauce is well seasoned from the salt in the Parmesan cheese and salted butter.
• Pepper is optional, freshly ground black pepper is a nice addition to this sauce or if you would like it a little spicy add some freshly ground white pepper.

Equipment

• Kitchen scales
• Measuring cups
• Medium size saucepan
• Wooden spoon
• Whisk

Step By Step Instructions

Step 1 - Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.

Step 2 -  Once the butter has melted, add the minced garlic, dried herbs, and flour, and continuously stir with a wooden spoon until the flour and butter combine into a paste.

Step 3 - Turn the heat to low, and as you stir, pour in the tiniest amount of stock, use a whisk, to whisk until the paste has absorbed the liquid, then add a little more liquid and whisk again until smooth, continue to do this until you have added at least ¼ of the stock ensuring the paste and liquid is smooth and lump free. 

Step 4 - Slowly pour in the remaining stock, whisking constantly until the sauce is smooth and lump-free.

Step 5 - Simmer the sauce over medium heat, stirring constantly until the sauce thickens and coats the back of a spoon.

Step 6 - Turn the heat to low, add the heavy cream and parmesan cheese, and stir until the sauce becomes smooth and creamy.

Step 7 - Taste and adjust the seasoning to taste with salt and pepper. 

Recipe Tips

If you have never made a roux-based sauce like this before, you may not be aware that:

• When you start adding a liquid, you should start by adding small amounts at a time and mix well before adding more liquid. This will help stop the sauce from becoming lumpy.
• The mixture will thicken at first, but each time you mix in more liquid it will be easier to stir in the roux without causing lumps.
• After a few additions of stock, the sauce becomes more liquid, and this is when you can pour in the remaining stock while whisking, without the worry of making a lumpy sauce. 
• When you have whisked in all the stock, you will need to simmer the sauce constantly for a few more minutes to allow it to thicken.
• You can tell when the sauce has thickened because it will feel thick when stirring and it will look thick too. 

Serving Size

The serving size of this cheese sauce is about ¼ cup.

Calories Per Serve

There are about 108 calories in a ¼ cup serving.

Serving Suggestions

• Serve this as an easy parmesan sauce for pasta and garnish with fresh chopped parsley, red pepper flakes, and grated parmesan cheese.
• If you like garlic parmesan chicken wings this sauce is the ideal dipping sauce for that.
• This creamy parmesan sauce can be used as a cheesy sauce for steak sandwiches or as a pizza sauce.

Storage

Refrigeration – Store this sauce in a sealed container in the fridge for up to seven days.

Freezing – This sauce does not freeze that well.

FAQ

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