Toss Homemade Pasta With Flour For A Thicker Alfredo Sauce

While you can get away with packaged pasta brands for the sake of convenience, there's nothing quite like the taste and texture of homemade pasta. Plus, making homemade pasta is easier than you think, requiring little more than common kitchen tools for shaping. Not only will fresh pasta instantly upgrade your next fettuccine Alfredo, but it'll also provide the perfect opportunity to thicken your Alfredo sauce.

It's a widely known trick to add a little pasta water to bolster pasta sauce with the help of the starch the pasta releases. However, if you're trying to remedy a thin Alfredo sauce, you can toss your scratch-made pasta dough in an extra serving of flour before adding it to boiled, salted water. Since flour is the source of the starch in pasta, an extra dose will add even more starch to the pasta water. You can then add a portion of ultra-starchy water to a skillet or pot of heated sauce before tossing your freshly made pasta into it. Extra starch will thicken Alfredo sauce effortlessly, without altering its flavor or tacking on more time or steps.

If you're worried about water diluting the flavor of Alfredo sauce, finishing your pasta Alfredo with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese will restore its flavor while providing an even creamier consistency.

While starchy pasta water is a simple and effective way to thicken Alfredo sauce, other methods are equally effective. If you forgot to add flour to your homemade pasta, you can still add starch to thicken Alfredo sauce in the form of a cornstarch slurry; blend a teaspoon or two of cornstarch with water before adding it to Alfredo sauce.

Perhaps the easiest way to thicken Alfredo sauce is adding more of its own thick or creamy ingredients. Grate parmesan into a skillet of Alfredo sauce, stirring to melt until you've reached the desired consistency. You can also melt cubes of cream cheese into Alfredo sauce as a tangy, creamy thickening agent. Judging by the thick creaminess of pasta carbonara, stirring egg yolks into Alfredo sauce will instill Alfredo sauce with a rich, butter flavor and a thicker consistency. Be sure to temper the egg yolk by whisking the egg yolk with a portion of the hot Alfredo sauce before stirring the mixture back into the sauce.

If you have time on your hands, you can thicken your Alfredo sauce by reducing it on the stove slowly over low heat. Even if your Alfredo sauce isn't as thick as you'd like, you can bolster the heartiness of your pasta by adding additional ingredients. Chicken, shrimp, mushrooms, and broccoli are classic mix-ins that'll enhance pasta Alfredo with heft and texture.