Garlic Parmesan Pasta

Ingredient Notes

These notes are here to help make this recipe a success; they cover some but not all ingredients. For a complete ingredient list, check out the recipe card below.

Pasta: The creamy garlic sauce is perfect with long noodles like spaghetti, linguine, or fettuccine. It also works with chunky shapes like rigatoni, penne, or spirals.
Garlic: The recipe uses 6 garlic cloves, as this is a Garlic Parmesan sauce. Feel free to add more or less garlic to suit your family; as I always say, we measure garlic with our hearts!
White wine: You can use any dry white wine in the recipe. If you prefer not to use alcohol, you can replace it with extra broth.
Cream: For the sauce, use heavy cream, thickened cream, or double cream. A thinner alternative, like half and half or single cream, will not thicken as much.
Broth/Stock: I usually use chicken broth for the sauce, but vegetable broth is a great alternative. I love Better than Bouillon for a quick broth/stock. I would opt for low-sodium/reduced-salt varieties.
Parmesan cheese: It is best to buy a block of parmesan and grate it yourself. Freshly grated parmesan melts far better than the store-bought pre-grated kind, and you'll end up with a much smoother sauce.

Recipe Tips

We've tested this recipe at least 3 times to ensure it works well for you. Have a look at our tips for getting the best dish you can!

• Add the butter, oil, and garlic to a cold pan and keep the heat low. This allows the garlic to cook slowly, achieving a mellow, deep flavor without burning.
• Have the wine measured out before you start cooking the garlic. This way, if the pan gets too hot, I can cool it with the wine.
• Always salt the pasta cooking water generously before adding your pasta; the recipe suggests 1 tablespoon of salt.
• Grate your parmesan from a block; it will melt into your sauce much better. Pre-shredded cheese is coated to prevent it from sticking together, and this coating can leave your sauce grainy.
• To help achieve the perfect sauce volume and consistency without adding lots of extra cream, reserve 1½ cups of the pasta cooking water. You will only need ½ - 1 cup of pasta cooking water to add to the sauce, but it is a good idea to reserve extra in case the sauce thickens too much.

Why You'll Love This Garlic Parmesan Pasta

• Kids love creamy, cheesy pasta dishes. 
• It works well as a main or a side dish.
• It is ready in under 30 minutes. 
• You can adapt it and add veg or protein to the sauce.
• It's garlic and pasta!

Recipe Adaptations

These are all just suggestions and things that have worked in our test kitchen, but it is your dinner, so adapt it to suit your family. That is the beauty of cooking; we can all create our own delicious meals.

• Cooked Proteins: Leftover cooked chicken, pork, salmon, or shrimp can be added to the cheese sauce to heat through just before adding the pasta.
• Raw Proteins: Chicken, pork, salmon, and seafood are all great with the garlic parmesan sauce. Fry them off in the skillet with olive oil before you cook the garlic. Tent the cooked protein with foil and set it to one side while you cook the rest of the dish. Then, add them back when you add the pasta and allow them to reheat gently. Crumbled, cooked bacon is also delicious sprinkled over the finished pasta.
• Summer Vegetables: This parmesan garlic pasta works well with summer vegetables like asparagus or peas. Blanch them in the pasta cooking water for 2 minutes, then add to the finished dish. You can also wilt baby spinach into the sauce when you add the pasta.
• Winter Vegetables: Add roasted carrots, parsnips, fennel, or celeriac into the sauce as you stir through the pasta. Sautéed green cabbage is also delicious added at the end (a sprinkling of cooked bacon works well with cabbage!). 
• Pangratatto: An excellent Italian pasta topping, pangratatto are toasted breadcrumbs that add a deliciously crunchy, crispy element to pasta. 

Serving Suggestions for Garlic Parmesan Pasta

Sides: You can serve this pasta as a main meal with an arugula parmesan salad and some garlic bread or as a side dish. It works wonderfully with Italian chicken Breasts, Baked Snapper, or Grilled Steak.

Wine: The creamy sauce works wonderfully with full-bodied whites like buttery New World Chardonnay or perfumed Viognier. Light-bodied reds like Grenache, Pinot Noir, or Gamay would also be great here.