Who doesn’t love a good fettuccine alfredo? You can easily replicate this delightful Italian-American classic with the best store bought alfredo sauce.
Store-bought sauces offer convenience for a low price. The tasty, creamy, and cheesy nature of alfredo is packed in an easy-to-store jar. You don’t have to worry about purchasing the correct quantities of the separate ingredients, and if you buy too much sauce, you can readily stash it for later.
With all of the alfredo sauces available, you may find it difficult to find the perfect brand. Below we have found five of the best premade alfredo sauce packages that you can purchase.
- Product Information: Dairy
- Weight: 5.4 Pounds
- Product Information: Organic
- Weight: 0.05 pounds
- Product Information: Creamy garlic
- Weight: 1.06 pounds
- Product Information: Dairy
- Weight: 2.3 pounds
- Product Information: Vegan
- Weight: 1.8 pounds
Best Store-Bought Alfredo Sauce Reviews
While there are many tasty sauces out there, we have gathered the five best options that we know you’ll love.
1. Bertolli Alfredo Sauce
Customers adore this product. It is extremely versatile and easy to store. You can use it on pasta, tortellini, shrimp, fish, chicken, or just about anything else in your kitchen. The flavor is rich and creamy, so you don’t even have to use much sauce to optimize the taste of your dish.
To prepare it, all you have to do is heat it up. You can microwave it or warm it on the stovetop, and then it’s ready. Any excess can be kept in the jar and stored in the refrigerator for later.
- One step preparation
- Convenient to use and store
- Chef recommended
- Made with real cheese, butter, and cream
- Less customizable than mixes
- Spoils quickly
2. Simply Organic Alfredo Sauce Mix
This creamy and robust alfredo sauce works excellently with pasta, chicken, potatoes, and more. However, you will need to complete significantly more preparatory work to create this sauce. You need to cook milk, butter, and parmesan cheese as the package only provides the Italian seasoning.
The Simply Organic Alfredo Sauce Mix packets include nonfat dry milk, maltodextrin, potato starch, sea salt, natural butter flavor, garlic, rice concentrate, white pepper, and nutmeg, all organic. When combined with the base sauce ingredients, you create a delectable dish.
It is gluten-free and allows for greater customization than the jarred varieties, but you have to make the sauce yourself. Some users found it was too salty for their tastes, but most enjoyed the flavor. You can also customize the proportions of the cream, butter, and cheese, and add it to different dishes, like creamed potatoes.
All in all, if you can handle heating up butter and milk and sprinkling on some spices, then you can make this alfredo sauce.
- Doesn’t spoil
- Made with organic ingredients
- Gluten-free and low-fat
- Proceeds support the food insecure
- It’s only the spices: you’ll need to make the sauce yourself
- Expensive for what it is
- Single-use packaging
3. McCormick Creamy Garlic Alfredo Sauce Mix
This best alfredo sauce brand offers one of the best mixes. You can customize it by mixing it with different ratios of milk, cream, tomato sauce, water, or butter. No matter what you have available to you, you can make it into an alfredo sauce using the McCormick packets.
It has far less fat and calories than homemade sauce when prepared according to package instructions, making it a healthier alternative. It is easy to make and store, and you can use it for a myriad of dishes.
While customers love the flavor, many have reported receiving only one packet instead of the listed 12. Contacting customer service usually resolves the issue, but keep in mind that you may not get what you ordered.
- You only need to add water
- Customizable: you can add different ratios of milk, cream, tomato sauce, and butter
- Low-fat and low-calorie
- Takes years to spoil
- Delicious flavor
- Many customers did not receive what they ordered
- Single-use packaging
4. Knorr Alfredo Pasta Sauce Mix
The most admirable feature of this sauce is that you can make any quantity you desire. You get about a gallon of powder, so you can make enough to feed a restaurant or a small family, depending on the day.
This alfredo sauce has romano, parmesan, semi-soft cheese, wheat flour, corn starch, salt, whey, buttermilk, garlic powder, onion powder, butter, and spices. It is not gluten-free, but you can adjust the milk, cream, and butter levels you add for the desired creaminess and flavor.
As with all powdered mixes, it lasts a long time. Since it comes in bulk, you will save money and the environment by avoiding single-use packets. Some users have reported it tasting different from the Knorr packets, and if you dislike the flavor, you are stuck with a huge quantity of mix. However, if you like the flavor, you will love this deal.
- Sold in bulk in a reusable canister
- Delicious flavor
- Takes years to spoil
- Only need to add milk and butter
- You can feed as many people as you need
- An expensive initial investment
- Tastes different from Knorr Alfredo Pasta Sauce packets
- If you dislike the taste, you’re stuck with a huge quantity
5. Victoria Vegan Alfredo Sauce
Victoria Vegan Alfredo Sauce comes in three flavors: Original Alfredo, Alfredo Arugula Pesto, and Alfredo Artichoke. Each has slightly different ingredients, but they all make delicious GMO-free, gluten-free, and dairy-free alfredo dishes.
This sauce is lower in fat than regular alfredo, and it comes fully premade, so you only need to heat it. You can drizzle it over vegetables or toss it with pasta for a complete meal.
Some users have reported that it had a fairly plain taste that they needed to jazz up with additional herbs and spices. It also has a slightly grainy texture. However, if you shake it well and add your own spices, you can get a great-tasting sauce.
It may not be the same as alfredo, but it does come close. Keep in mind that it is a bit pricey, but many found it was worth the extra few bucks.
- Vegetarian- and vegan-friendly
- GMO-free, gluten-free, and dairy-free
- Low in fat
- Premade in a jar
- Doesn’t taste the same as alfredo
- Grainy texture if you don’t shake the jar enough
- Requires additional herbs and spices to be palatable
What is Alfredo Sauce?
In 1914, a man named Alfredo di Lelio ran a restaurant in Rome. His pregnant wife, Ines, had an upset stomach, and she could not keep much food down. To aid her in her troubles, Alfredo cooked pasta in bianco, or plain white pasta, and tossed it with creamy butter and Parmesan cheese. This dish became known as fettuccine al burro.
Ines adored this dish and ate it regularly, so Alfredo added it to his restaurant’s menu. In the 1920s, the American actors Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks ended up in the Rome restaurant and tasted the fettuccine. They fell in love and asked for the recipe, bringing it back to the USA.
This dish took off in America, but to Italians, it was merely buttered noodles. Alfredo opened several other restaurants, and they are some of the only places in Italy where you can find fettuccine alfredo. Other places serve fettuccine al burro, pasta in bianco, and fettuccine burro e parmigiano, which replicate the butter and cheese origins.
Since American butter lacked the creaminess of its Italian counterpart, chefs began adding heavy cream to the mix. Now renamed after its creator, alfredo sauce has taken many different forms. Different establishments experiment with various meats, cheeses, herbs, and amounts of cream, milk, and flour.
The popularity of alfredo sauce has turned it into a convenience product. Many brands have jarred, canned, and powdered the components to easily create the creamy white sauce at home. While you could easily make a simple sauce with butter, heavy cream, and parmesan cheese, different pre-packaged brands sell versions with romano cheese, parsley, garlic, shrimp, and many other variations.
If you want a quick, easy, and delicious alfredo sauce, you can consider one of the products mentioned below.
Pre-Purchase Considerations
When choosing a premade alfredo sauce, you first need to decide if you want to buy it jarred or powdered. To make this decision, try to answer the below questions.
- How long do I need to store the sauce?
- How often will I be making alfredo-based dishes?
- How long do I have to prepare the sauce?
- Am I a decent chef?
Alfredo sauce jars are extremely convenient, and you won’t need any other ingredients for a delicious sauce. If you don’t know your way around the kitchen, this option will save you many steps. However, they spoil quickly compared to mixes, and they only last in the fridge for one to two weeks. As such, they are best for those who plan on cooking a lot of alfredo dishes in the upcoming week.
Powdered mixes often require more time and ingredients to make the sauce. They can end up more costly than the jars, and they create more waste. On the other hand, you have greater control over the ingredients and can customize it more than jarred sauces. Also, powders take a long time to expire, so your family won’t have to eat alfredo exclusively for a week.
Pasta Alfredo Cooking Tips
Here are a few tips to keep in mind if you want to cook the perfect plate of pasta.
Begin by preparing the sauce. Whether you choose a mix or a jar, making the sauce before the pasta will ensure that it comes out hot. You can prepare the sauce how you like and then keep it on low heat to stay warm as you cook your pasta.
Follow the package instructions if you are cooking dry pasta. A longer pasta like fettuccine, spaghetti, or bucatini works best with alfredo sauce.
A little tip to keep in mind is to warm the bowls or plates before filling them with food. You can run some hot water over the bowl or microwave it for 30 seconds. This technique keeps the food warmer for longer.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you haven’t purchased alfredo sauce before, you may have a few questions that you would like answered.
When you purchase jarred alfredo sauce, you can store it in the pantry until you open it. Then, you will need to keep it in the fridge to keep it fresh. While the amount of time it lasts in the refrigerator depends on the sauce itself, you should have at least five days of fresh alfredo.
You can store alfredo sauce mix in the pantry. If you buy individual packets, you only need to tear it open and follow the package instructions. For canisters of the powdered mix, scoop out the portion you want to prepare and seal the canister back up for cabinet storage.
The original Italian alfredo sauce was made of creamy butter and parmesan cheese, while the American variety features heavy cream, butter, and parmesan cheese. You can add skim milk instead of heavy cream for a low-fat variety.
Once you have made the base sauce, you can add other ingredients like romano cheese, black pepper, nutmeg, parsley, rosemary, tomato, or anything else you’d like to customize the flavor. You can even add clams, shrimp, or chicken to the sauce to toss with pasta.
If you have purchased jarred alfredo sauce and have stored it in the fridge for about a week, smell the sauce to see if it seems sour. A scent that differs from the original often means it has expired. You can also check the use-by date as a general guideline, particularly for powdered mixes.
If the sniff test leaves you uncertain, you can taste a small amount. If it tastes rancid or “off” in any way, discard the sauce as it is probably bad.
If you bought an alfredo sauce and aren’t too jazzed about the taste, there are plenty of ways to step things up.
You can add some extra cheese to the sauce. Some brands, such as Simply Organic, do not have cheese in their mix, so you should add some parmesan or romano to the sauce. If you find it lacks the cheesy flavor you desire, you can sprinkle on some extra as well. You can experiment with other cheeses like mascarpone or ricotta, and even cream cheese to amplify the flavor.
A common ingredient to add to alfredo sauce is black pepper. While many mixes have some pepper in them, adding more can alter the taste. Nutmeg is another good spice to add. It may sound odd, but sprinkle a little in the next time you cook alfredo sauce to see how well it complements the flavor.
Adding some garlic or garlic powder can improve the taste and add some anti-inflammatory health benefits.
If you bought a mix and are looking for a creamy yet lower-calorie sauce, consider adding half-and-half instead of cream. You’ll get a nice, rich taste with a bit less fat.
Spinach and broccoli add numerous vitamins and minerals to your sauce, and they can make it more filling. They are low in calories and high in fiber, creating a more satisfying meal.
For a protein boost, you can add some seafood or poultry to the sauce. A can of minced clams can add a fun texture and extra flavor. Shrimp is particularly delicious in alfredo sauce. The sauce itself optimizes the flavor of most fish, so if you aren’t keen on the taste, try adding some alfredo to your fish. Shredded chicken in the sauce tastes great, and you can also spread some onto a roasted chicken breast to add more flavor and moisture.
Common alfredo-based recipes include fettuccine alfredo, pasta in bianco, chicken alfredo, creamed potatoes, pierogies, and tortellini. Some people even make a white pizza with alfredo in place of tomato sauce.
Bottom Line
While the best store-bought alfredo sauce ultimately depends on your needs, we recommend the Bertolli Alfredo Sauce for its flavor and convenience. While it won’t last as long as the mixes, you won’t want to stop eating it.
The Simply Organic Alfredo Sauce Mix only has the herbs and spices that you’d need to add to homemade sauce. McCormick has a delicious taste but poor customer service. Knorr doesn’t have the same taste as the smaller packs, but it is great if you have many people to feed. Lastly, Victoria Vegan is great if you are vegan, but otherwise, the taste pales compared to the real thing.
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