Garlic Parmesan Sauce

This rich and creamy Garlic Parmesan Sauce is a versatile sauce that’ll perk up any dinner. It’s quick and easy to make this lusciously delicious sauce that’s made with ingredients you might already have on hand.

Serve this Homemade Parmesan cream sauce over pasta for a great family night dinner. It’s also perfect for pizza, vegetables, chicken, steak, or anything you can dream up!

This recipe has been on my blog since 2019. It’s a total house favorite! But it was time for an update. So, I’ve updated the photos, information, and serving suggestions for a better user experience. I hope you give it a try! You won’t be disappointed.

We appreciate your support

Please let me know if you have any questions about this recipe. I read all the comments myself and I try to help as soon as I can. I have readers from all levels of comfort and experience in the kitchen on my site, and I’ve tried to answer some of your questions already in the post. But if I’ve missed anything, please feel free to leave a comment and ask.

A great staple recipe

This is a great basic sauce recipe that’s a good staple in any kitchen.

This sauce is so creamy & 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 recipe tastes like a sauce you’d get at a restaurant: but it only takes about 30 minutes to make it at home.

It’s kind of like Alfredo, only better! And I feel like if you have a few great staple sauce recipes you can make a great dinner with not too much effort.

Here are some other great sauce recipes you’ll love!

The pasta in the picture above 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.

Ingredients

Let’s look at the ingredients.

Parmesan

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 store-bought 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.

PRO tip: I prefer to use organic cream because it lasts longer than non-organic.

If you find yourself with leftover cream, check out my tips for What to do with Leftover Cream.

How to make

This sauce is vegetarian and naturally gluten-free. The thickening comes from the cream and the Parmesan cheese and some cooking time. 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.

Heat oil in a large skillet or medium saucepan over medium-high heat, and once hot, add the chopped onion. Cook the onion until it starts 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.

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.

Want it super smooth. Simply pop it in the blender, or use and immersion blender on it. I figure it doesn’t have to be super smooth if you’re serving it on pasta or pizza. But you may want it smooth if you’re serving it over steak.

To add a little kick to the sauce, either add ½ teaspoon hot sauce, like Frank’s Red Hot, or ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper. You could add in some roasted garlic as well.

Garnish with a squeeze of lemon wedge if you’d like.

Pro tip: I don’t add salt to the recipe so that it can go on anything and not be too salty. If you prefer to add a pinch of salt directly to the sauce, please feel free.

How to store

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 use, heat the sauce on the stove top over medium-low heat stirring frequently and mix with a little more cream or milk until it comes back to a creamy consistency.

You can reheat it in the microwave as well. Use short bursts, stirring in between, until it’s warmed through. Avoid high heat to prevent the sauce from separating.

I don’t recommend freezing it because it’s dairy-based and the texture won’t be the same after it’s defrosted.

More Parmesan recipes

Parmesan makes everything better! And when you add in some garlic, it’s like dinnertime heaven. Here are a few great recipes starring this salty cheese:

Serving suggestions

Ways to Use Garlic Parmesan Sauce. Take a look at these great dinner recipes with heavy cream for inspiration:

• Pasta: Serve over pasta for an easy creamy garlic pasta sauce: Grab 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 to 2 & ½ 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 ½ of a 16-ounce box of pasta. It’s also great over ravioli, tortellini, or gnocchi.
• Add some vegetables into the pasta dish like cherry tomatoes, fresh spinach leaves, or mushrooms.
• Vegetables: 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. Toss cooked spaghetti squash with the sauce.
• Pizza: It makes a great white pizza sauce. I guess that Domino’s Pizza and Buffalo Wild Wings both have a version of this sauce as well.
• Sauce over proteins: Serve it over chicken, steak, tofu, or over meatballs.
• Seafood: It’s great on air fryer salmon or shrimp. I’ve made a fantastic dinner of Garlic Parmesan Cream Shrimp over Roasted Squash using this sauce
• Potatoes and rice: Spoon it over baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, or cooked rice
• Lasagna: Make a white lasagna using this sauce (you may want to make a double recipe)
• Dipping sauce: Use it as a dip for breadsticks, French fries, mozzarella sticks, or veggies like carrot sticks, celery, bell peppers, broccoli or cauliflower florets
• Wings: Serve it with Buffalo Wings as a dipping sauce or toss it with chicken wings
• Casseroles: Use it in casseroles like a Buffalo Chicken Pasta
• Add it to a burger

Can I make this vegan or dairy free?

Yes, this can be made vegan or dairy-free, though this will change the flavor profile of the sauce a bit. Swap the cream with full-fat coconut milk, coconut cream, or use a plant based cream (skip the sweetened one though). And use a dairy-free shredded cheese, dairy-free Parmesan. You might want to add in a spoonful of nutritional yeast as well to up that cheesy flavor.

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Dinner recipes with cream

So many of you have asked for some dinner recipes with cream, I thought I’d share some of my favorites here.

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