Part of what makes me frugal is home cooking, furthermore- cooking from scratch. There is always a few things that just don't even click in our brains as something to make from scratch, right? True for me anyway. One of those things was alfredo sauce. I just always bought the jarred stuff.
It wasn't until I saw a tiktok video about how in Italy, the real authentic stuff is quite literally parmesean, butter & pasta water. The idea that they didn't even traditionally use milk just blew my mind. I went down this rabbit hole of alfredo sauce recipes.
Something I determined, seems to be true no matter the recipe...homemade alfredo sauce ingredients may initially cost more than buying a couple jars as needed. But those recipes make a ton of sauce! Its a big frugal win for my family!
At my grocery store depending on brand, (1) 14-16 oz. jar of alfredo sauce costs somewhere between $3 & $5 bucks.
The ingredients for this bomb alfredo sauce I just made was
(1)quart of half & half
(1 1/2) cups grated parmesean
(2)sticks of butter
(1) tsp garlic powder
S&P to taste
Melt butter in pot, pour the half & half in, stir constantly till hot (not boiling), dump in the cheese & whisk vigorously, toss in the seasoning & voila. It was a little thin at first because I used half & half instead of heavy cream. But if you cook the noods al dente & let them finish in the sauce, the starch from the noodles thicken the sauce to perfection!
Literally made half a stock pot, had to be atleast 6 jars worth of the store bought stuff. Cost of those ingredients approx $11 dollars. Could have easily been less.
Used half the sauce I made with a pound of sgetti & froze the rest. Easily saved 50% cost by making it from scratch, and it tasted so much better!
January 19, 2021 at 01:50AM
