Did you get some new cookware over the holidays? Was your New Year’s Resolution that you’d finally start cooking more? Are you staring at the unopened box for that new pan in between reading the opening sentences of this article? Look, we’ve all been there (maybe not that last part) and we promise, cooking doesn’t have to be hard. Once you start nailing a few recipes, you’ll be shocked at how quickly your imagination and ingenuity take over and you’re able to make great dishes with whatever you have on hand.
But where to start? One of the quickest ways to develop your cooking muscles is by recreating your favorite recipes, and one of the easiest out there is Olive Garden’s famous alfredo sauce. We’re not talking about a copycat recipe either, we mean the real thing. How do we have access to Olive Garden’s famous alfredo sauce? They gave it to us.
Well, sort of. Before a couple of years ago, Olive Garden used to list its full alfredo recipe — as well as other famous dishes — on its website. Recently, OG has taken all its recipes down, so what does one do when it wants to look at an old version of a website? Consult The Wayback Machine.
If you’re not familiar, the Wayback Machine is a non-profit resource that tasks itself with building a digital archive of the internet, meaning you can see old versions of websites. So this recipe comes straight from Olive Garden themselves. Here is what you’ll need.
- 3 oz butter
- 1 TBSP Garlic
- 2 TBSP All Purpose Flour
- 1 1/2 cup milk
- 1 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup imported Parmesan cheese, grated (we suggest Parmigiano Reggiano)
- 1/2 cup imported Romano cheese, grated
- Salt and black pepper to taste
We did some snooping on Reddit and other online forums and found alleged former Olive Garden employees mention that in place of flour, OG uses something called powdered “white sauce base.” What’s in the “white sauce base?” There is no way of us knowing, but we’re going to assume it’s flour and extra spices like garlic or onion powder.
Putting it all together is pretty simple as well, according to Olive Garden you’re going to want to:
- Sautee the butter and garlic in a saucepan on medium heat. Cook for 1 minute, stirring occasionally.
- Add the remaining ingredients to the saucepan and stir occasionally until the sauce begins to simmer. Remove from heat.
- Serve the Alfredo sauce over your favorite pasta, like fettuccine, linguine, or bow tie.
Taste your sauce as you make it and you’ll never go wrong. And now you have one less reason to go to Olive Garden (which is probably why they removed the recipe from their website).
But before you fire up that stove let us try and convince you to do things the authentic way. Look, if you’re an Olive Garden fan, you’ve definitely had the “Olive Garden isn’t authentic Italian food” conversation and you’re probably sick of hearing it (also because Olive Garden was never trying to be — it’s fast Italian American food). And we’re not here to trash Olive Garden’s food. We just want you to have the best fettuccine alfredo possible, and once you’ve had this authentic recipe by Uproxx’s own Zach Johnston (that you can actually find in Roman restaurants), you’ll never go back.
Still not convinced? Well, take this into account, you’ll only need five ingredients: pasta, butter, parmigiano reggiano, salt, and pasta water. Not only does this recipe use fewer ingredients and boast deeper flavors, but it’s also the real thing, which is going to give you bragging rights when you start showing up to parties with your homemade fettuccine alfredo.
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