I've been making this kind of "cheat" or "easy" Alfredo sauce. I've never posted it because it's more of a lazy day recipe when I don't want to make a full pasta dish. And it dawned on me that other people might be in the same boat where they want something in between hour long macaroni & cheese and just sprinkling parmesan on it. My go-to for this lately has been a faux Alfredo sauce. Alfredo sauce is ordinarily made with butter, pasta water, and parmesan. My intestines aren't the biggest fans of that much butter, though. So, it's not something that I ordinarily think about making. Although you can omit the butter entirely and just use the same basic method of adding pasta water to parmesan cheese and whisking over low-heat.
Omitting the butter makes this a little bit simpler recipe because it's less likely to break. It's going to be a lot more beginner-friendly and is a good way to work up to a full Alfredo sauce. It's also great for those lazy days where you can't be bothered! It only takes a couple of minutes to grate cheese and whisk in pasta water. There are those who like to do this without heat. I just don't tend to be able to whisk it quickly enough to omit the stove entirely. You can also add in a little bit of wine, either in addition to or instead of the pasta water, if you're feeling more like a faux fondue.
Type of Cheese
You can also mix and match the type of cheese that you're doing. A hard cheese is going to be more similar to parmesan. I ordinarily opt for gruyère when I'm making pasta sauce. It's very reasonably priced at my Costco, so I use a ton of it. Although you can mix and match any semi-hard or hard cheese. You can substitute anything that melts well, though. I'll sometimes mix in some cheddar cheese. gouda, emmentaler, and fontina are also good choices.
Just steer clear of grilling cheeses, like mozzarella. These tend to hold their shape when melting, which is good for pulling apart cheesy pieces of lasagna. Although they have a tendency to clump together heated. If you try to make pasta sauce out of them, they'll just mix into one giant ball of cheese. Mozzarella does not emulsify well. You can mix it in incredibly slowly in very small increments with a lot of very slowly simmering liquid. Or add in an emulsifier, like corn starch. But that kind of defeats the point of making a faux dish! At that point, you might as well make fondue and pour it over pasta (which I absolutely have done; see the Variations section in between the Gallery and the Recipe below).
Gallery
Variations of Easy Alfredo Sauce
This is a simple "hack" Alfredo sauce. Although there are plenty of more in-depth pastas to choose from, if you want something a little bit more impressive. I'm constantly making things like fondue, macaroni and cheese, and a plethora of other pasta and cheese-related dishes. Once you get the hang of making a roux, you can apply the same basic principles to just about anything with cheese!
The Fundamentals of Easy Alfredo Sauce w/out Butter
Easy Alfredo Sauce consists of 3 ingredients: pasta, cheese, and pasta water. I like cheddar, but you can mix and match the cheese and add wine. It's a lot simpler than a more traditional Alfredo sauce and a great beginner-friendly recipe for those who want to learn how to make a roux without too much worry about the sauce breaking. Plus, the whole process takes less than a half hour, from the time that you start boiling water to serving. It's a great recipe to toss together when you want something a little bit fancier than grating parmesan on top of noodles, but nowhere near as complicated as other sauces.
1c.cheese of choicegrated (cheddar, parmesan, blue cheese, etc. see notes above)
1/2c.pasta water(or dry white wine)
dashsalt
dashpepper
Instructions
Cook Pasta
Add about 4 inches of water to a large pot and bring to a boil over high heat.
Cook pasta according to the manufacturer's instructions. This typically entails boiling for about 8-12 minutes, or until barely al dente.
Remove from heat, but DO NOT DRAIN. You'll need the pasta water in the next step.
Easy Alfredo Sauce
Meanwhile, grate half of the cheese into a large saucepan over NO HEAT. Do not melt the cheese until the pasta is finished cooking.
Once the pasta is finished, use a slotted spoon to transfer the pasta to the saucepan with the cheese.You want to do this fairly quickly because you don't want the pasta to overcook. I'd even recommend undercooking it slightly because mixing it in with the sauce will take a little bit of time.
Bring the saucepan up to medium-low heat and stir vigorously until the cheese is melted. Making sure to add a little bit of pasta water, about 1/8 cup or a couple of spoonfuls at a time.
Continue to mix in small amounts of cheese and pasta water (or wine) until the sauce is fully incorporated and the consistency that you want.I usually don't even measure the ingredients. I'll just add a little bit of water and a little bit of cheese, mix vigorously, and then adjust the water and cheese levels until the desired consistency is reached. You can make this thinner or thicker depending on your personal taste.Cooking the sauce will also make it thicker. So, it always helps to have some extra pasta water (or wine) on hand, just in case it simmers down too much.
Top with a dash of salt and pepper to taste and serve immediately.
Tips, Tricks, & Notes
Homemade Alfredo sauce of any kind is not like the store-bought bottles. It will not keep. It will not reheat. This goes for almost all cheese sauces. There's a reason that store-bought macaroni and cheese is powdered and pasta sauces have an abundance of stabilizers in their ingredient lists. A true cheese sauce is not something that will reheat well. It's not that it CAN'T be done very slowly and carefully. But it will take longer than just making the sauce in the first place. So, you're going to be better off just serving it immediately. Or, if you have made it slightly ahead of time, just keep it slowly heating over low heat on the stove. Do not let it reach room temperature and continue to stir in more pasta water (or wine) as it thickens.
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