Quick and easy homemade Alfredo Sauce recipe made with cream, butter, lemon juice, Parmesan cheese and nutmeg. This rich, creamy recipe is wonderful served over pasta or with chicken.
This creamy and delicious single serving Alfredo Sauce recipe is one that all home cooks should have. It's a lovely sauce that's perfect to toss with pasta or serve with chicken.
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Ingredients
See recipe box below for ingredient amounts and full recipe instructions.
The ingredients in this small batch recipe are:
- heavy cream
- lemon juice
- butter
- Parmesan cheese
- ground nutmeg
- salt (optional)
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How To Make This Recipe
The detailed steps, with photos, showing how to make the sauce is shown in an earlier (large batch) Alfredo sauce recipe from a few years ago. The process is the same, the ingredient amounts are different.
Step 1
Stir the cream and the lemon juice in a small saucepan over medium heat to blend. Add the butter and cook until the butter melts.
Step 2
After the butter melts, add in grated Parmesan cheese, and a pinch of nutmeg. Stir until the cheese has melted.
Alfredo Sauce is traditionally served with fettuccine pasta. This flat, ribbon pasta is perfect for cream sauces such as this one. Feel free to use your favorite pasta shape instead.
Reduced Calorie Option
You can lighten up and reduce the calories in this Alfredo Sauce by substituting half and half for the heavy cream. The sauce will still be creamy and the calories will be reduced.
Many Ways to Enjoy This Wonderful Sauce
Use this Alfredo Sauce in a variety of different ways. In addition to eating it tossed with pasta, consider also adding the sauce to cooked chicken, shrimp, or on an Alfredo pizza.
Pasta For One
When you want to make a bowl of pasta for yourself, this single serving sauce recipe is perfect.
I generally use 2-ounces of dried fettuccine noodles and find that this recipe will give you the perfect amount of sauce.
As the pasta cooks in the boiling water, so does the sauce in it's own saucepan. In minutes, you can enjoy a big bowl of Fettuccine Alfredo and you'll have no leftovers to deal with.
Other Small Batch Sauce Recipes
What To Serve With Fettuccine Alfredo
Ways To Use Up Leftover Ingredients
If you have any ingredients left over from this recipe, you might consider using them in any of these single serving recipes:
- Cream: Vanilla Ice Cream, Icebox Cake, Crustless Quiche Lorraine, Chicken with Mustard Sauce
- Lemon juice: Lemon Blueberry Muffin, Lemon and Garlic Chicken, Lemon Meringue Pie, Baba Ganoush
- Parmesan cheese: Parmesan Crisps, Eggplant Parmesan, Baked Chicken Tenders, Cheesy Baked Eggs
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For this single serving recipe, I use a 1-quart saucepan. For best results, please use a pan of similar size.
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons salted butter
- 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- pinch ground nutmeg
- pinch salt , to taste
How To Video
Instructions
- Stir the cream and the lemon juice in a small saucepan over medium heat to blend.
- Add the butter and cook over medium heat until the butter melts, stirring constantly, about 3 minutes.
- Reduce the heat to low and add in the grated Parmesan cheese, nutmeg and salt, stirring until the cheese has completely melted.
- Remove from the heat.
- Toss with cooked pasta.
- Sprinkle a little more grated parmesan over the top, if desired.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
I just realized I have no heavy cream on hand. Acceptable substitutes? This is supposed to be go with the husband’s dinner tonight.
Hi Erin,
I’ve only tested this recipe using cream. The cream is what helps make the sauce creamy but half and half will work as a good substitute. You could make a “roux” similar to what we do with our macaroni and cheese recipe (https://onedishkitchen.com/macaroni-cheese-recipe-for-one/) – You do this by melting 1 tablespoon of butter in a small saucepan and whisking in 1 tablespoon of flour. Cook the flour/butter for about a minute to cook off the raw flour taste, then slowly whisk in warmed milk instead of cream. Cook, whisking until the sauce has thickened and there are no lumps. You might have to add a bit more milk if the sauce is too thick. Adjust salt to suit your tastes. Again though, I haven’t tested this particular recipe using anything other than cream.
Thanks for this recipe for one. My husband is not a fan of cheese sauces but I love them so this works out perfectly for just me.
I made this tonight and served the sauce over Zucchini noodles and topped with shrimp. The flavors were excellent and really enhanced the dish. I didn’t have grated Parmesan on hand but did have shredded Parmesan which didn’t melt as well. Next time I will make sure I purchase the grated cheese.
Since my husband and I have different tastes, many times I make separate meals for us. So the smaller portion recipes totally fit the bill. So much easier than trying to reduce a 6 serving recipe. Thank you for doing it for us….
You are most welcome, Sharon. I’m so happy you and your husband are enjoying the recipes.
Joanie
Quick easy and buildable recipe i added some fresh garlic and 1 tablespoon of cream cheese it was amazing thank you 4the recipe loved it. Theres not alot of recipes for small families and or single people so this was great!😋👍🍓🍝🌟
Hi Lisa, thank you so much for letting me know that the recipe worked well for you. You can’t go wrong with fresh garlic – great idea to add it! Hope you find many new recipes to try here.
Have a wonderful Sunday!
Joanie
I just found your site and I’m so excited. I have a question about the calorie count in the Alfredo Sauce for One. The calories are just for the sauce right, it doesn’t include the pasta does it? It would be nice if it did. I wrote down the recipes for the Alfredo Sauce , the Beer Bread and the Banana Bread so far. I think I’m going to get myself a special tablet just for recipes for one.I’m going to be looking at your site a lot. Thanks for the recipies. Hugs, Ginger
Hi Ginger,
Yes, the calorie count is for the sauce and not the pasta. The sauce is made with heavy cream and that’s where the majority of the calories comes from. The sauce is low in carbs, yet higher in calories.
I’m so glad you are enjoying the recipes. Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know.
Joanie