This rich and creamy Garlic Parmesan Cream Sauce is a versatile sauce that’ll perk up your weeknight dinners. It’s quick and easy to make this creamy, lusciously smooth sauce that’s made with ingredients you might already have on hand.
Serve this Parmesan cream sauce over pasta for a quick and easy family night dinner. It’s also great on pizza, vegetables, chicken, steak, or anything you can dream up!
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A great basic sauce
This easy to make sauce is what dreams are made of! So creamy, so flavorful; it’s the perfect addition to any meal. I feel that sauces can totally make a humdrum dinner into a special event. Plus, you can make it in just a few simple steps. So, what are you waiting for? Grab this recipe today and enjoy a delicious meal!
This tastes like a sauce you’d get at a restaurant: but it only takes about 30 minutes total to make it at home.
This is a great basic sauce recipe that’s a good staple in any kitchen.
This recipe is…
Vegetarian and naturally gluten-free. The thickening comes from the cream and the Parmesan cheese and some cooking time.
Serving suggestions
- Serve over pasta for an easy pasta sauce: serve with your favorite type of pasta noodle: long noodles like linguini or angel hair or short noodles like penne. And it’s really pretty with green spinach pasta. The recipe makes about 2 & 1/2 to 3 cups of sauce. How much pasta to use will depend on your taste and how much sauce to pasta you like. I typically use about 1/2 of a 16 ounce box of pasta.
- Add some vegetables into the pasta dish like cherry tomatoes, fresh spinach leaves, or mushrooms
- It’s great over ravioli or tortellini
- Toss cooked spaghetti squash with the sauce
- Serve over rice
- Vegetables are really good either dipped in the sauce, or with the sauce spooned over them. Try making some Oven Roasted Vegetables or Roasted Green Beans to go with the sauce
- Serve with gnocchi
- It makes a great white pizza sauce
- Serve it over chicken, steak, or tofu
- Great with seafood like air fryer salmon or shrimp
- Great over baked potatoes
- Make a white lasagna using this sauce (you may want to make a double recipe)
- Use it as a dip for breadsticks
- I’ve also made a fantastic dinner of Garlic Parmesan Cream Shrimp over Roasted Squash using this sauce
- Garnish with a squeeze of lemon wedge if you’d like
- Add in some roasted garlic as well
The pasta in the picture is called Campanelle. It’s Italian for “Bellflower” or “little bells”, and it’s good for thicker sauces. Here’s an amazon affiliate link for it since so many readers have asked me about it.
How to make
Here are some tips for how this sauce. And one of the things I really love about this is there’s no need to fuss around with a roux.
Gather up your ingredients, and measuring cups and spoons. Measure out things that you can, chop the herbs, and grate the cheese. This is called Mise en place, a French culinary phrase which means “putting in place” or “gather”. It helps with these kinds of quick cooking recipes.
Parmesan tips
You can use your favorite Parmesan cheese for this recipe. I recommend going with a good quality aged Parmesan, like Parmigiano Reggiano, here because there are so few ingredients in the recipe.
Yes, you can use a pre-shredded refrigerated packaged Parmesan. It’ll save you some time, and some days we all need that. This wouldn’t be my first choice, but it will work.
Please don’t use the shaker can of grated Parmesan cheese. That won’t work here.
What kind of broth should I use?
I make mine with veggie broth so that it’s vegetarian. And, I prefer the taste of vegetable broth.
I have two great recipes for homemade broth. Vegetarian Roasted Vegetable Broth is a rich homemade broth filled with lots of veggie flavor. And Instant Vegetarian Broth is a quick mix that you can store in your cupboard so it’s ready at a moment’s notice.
Feel free to use chicken broth instead of veggie broth if you prefer. The sauce won’t be vegetarian any longer if you use chicken broth.
In the “kitchen items you may need” section lower in the post, I have my recommendation for a great tasting broth.
What is whipping cream?
The ingredients in this cream sauce call for whipping cream. “What is that?”, you may ask.
Most well-stocked grocery stores will carry whipping cream, also sometimes called simply “cream”, in a carton in the dairy section of the store, and it’s probably right next to the heavy whipping cream.
Whipping cream is a liquid, much like milk or cream that you pour out of a carton. It is not whipped cream that you squirt out of a can.
If your store doesn’t carry whipping cream, you may use heavy whipping cream. The difference between whipping cream and heavy whipping cream is the fat content.
Whipping cream, or light whipping cream, is lighter in fat and flavor than heavy cream, and contains 30% to 35% milk fat. Heavy cream, or heavy whipping cream, must contain at least 36% or more milk fat.
Whipping cream, when used in this recipe, will not be a heavy as heavy whipping cream, and will produce a nicer sauce.
If you find yourself with leftover cream, check out my tips for What to do with Leftover Cream.
Let’s get cooking
Heat oil in a large skillet or medium saucepan over medium-high heat, and once hot, add the chopped onion. Cook until starting to brown, about 10 minutes.
Stir in the pressed garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the vegetable broth to the cooked onion, and cook about 5 minutes, reducing the broth by about half.
Gently pour in the cream, chopped rosemary, and thyme, stir to combine, and cook for 5 minutes, or until cream thickens slightly.
Add shredded Parmesan and stir in.
How to store leftovers?
This sauce, like most cream sauces is best when freshly made.
If you do have leftovers, it keeps well in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
To reuse, heat the sauce on the stovetop over medium-low heat and mix with a little more cream or milk until it comes back to a creamy consistency.
Also, I prefer to use organic cream because it lasts longer than non-organic.
Other delicious sauces
Sauces make the meal! Here are some other great ones you’ll love! Blue Cheese Spinach Walnut Sauce, Orange Basil Cream Sauce, and Creamy Mushroom Sauce.
More Parmesan recipes
Parmesan makes everything better! Here are a few great recipes starring this salty cheese:
Garlic Parmesan Pasta, Parmesan Baked Halibut, Tomato Parmesan Slow Cooker Soup, and Garlic Parmesan Cauliflower.
Kitchen items you may need
Note: these are Amazon Affiliate links
Vegetable Broth
Large Skillet
Box grater
Knife
Cutting board
Garlic press
Measuring cups & spoons
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Recipe
Garlic Parmesan Cream Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ yellow onion chopped
- 2 large garlic cloves pressed
- ½ cup vegetable broth
- 1 ½ cups whipping cream
- ¼ teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
- ½ teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
- 1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large skillet or medium saucepan over medium-high heat, and once hot, add the chopped onion. Cook until starting to brown, about 10 minutes.1 tablespoon olive oil, ½ yellow onion
- Add the pressed garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the vegetable broth to the cooked onion, and cook about 5 minutes, reducing the broth by about half.2 large garlic cloves, ½ cup vegetable broth
- Add the cream, chopped rosemary, and thyme, stir to combine, and cook for 5 minutes, or until cream thickens slightly.1 ½ cups whipping cream, ¼ teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary, ½ teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
- Add shredded Parmesan and stir in.1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations, and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary based on brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes, and more.
Debi
Sheryll, The pasta in the picture is called Campanelle. It’s Italian for “Bellflower” or “little bells”, and it’s good for thicker sauces. The version I bought was a regular pasta with gluten. Barilla makes some good gluten free varieties, maybe your local grocery store will carry some. I looked on Amazon and did not see any GF Capanelle. And thank you for letting me know how you like it with coconut cream. I have a FODMAP free recipe you may love as well: https://lifecurrentsblog.com/shrimp-with-fresh-tomato-sauce/
Happy Eating!
Jill
Very tasty and quick to make! The whole family loved the sauce. We had it over spinach and cheese ravioli.
Sandy
I was excited when I found this recipe with Rosemary & Thyme included. I immediately pulled out the remaining Turkey meatballs from my freezer to cook up for this sauce. After a slight stroke in July I’ve been trying to get my kitchen groove back . This explains why when I opened our frig there was only 1 cup of Almond milk left I hadn’t remember we were low. No problem; I added 2 Tbls Avocado plant butter, 2 Tbls whole wheat flour, also broth & milk, once thick I added cheese, perfection.
Jennifer Noble
How many cups does this make? How much pasta could be used? Thanks.
Debi
Jennifer, it makes about 2 & 1/2 to 3 cups of sauce. How much pasta will depend on your taste and how much sauce to pasta you like. I typically use about 1/2 of a 16 ounce box of pasta. Hope that helps.
Michelle
This sauce was delicious! I will definitely make it again! Thank you for sharing it.
P
Add a touch of salt. Very good. Made pork meatballs to go with it.
Dawn
Excellent! Browned chicken in skillet and then continued with recipe.
Deb
Came out great! Added chicken and baby spinach over cheese and spinach ravioli. WAS SO GOOD!
Joni Brands
This was SO delicious!! I used a white onion and Asiago cheese since those are what i had on hand and oh my goodness! We ate it over lobster ravioli and it was wonderful!!