Creamy Garlic Sauce Recipe

Last Updated on April 7, 2025

Creamy garlic sauce is easy to make and tastes great on meats and vegetables. The recipe uses simple ingredients and the garlic sauce can be made in 30 to 35 minutes.

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Mary Jo picked up some pre-made Key West Pink Shrimp Ravioli at the seafood market the other day. The ravioli was prepared by boiling the frozen pieces in water for 6 or 7 minutes.

What we needed was a good garlic sauce to go with the ravioli and this recipe was easy and excellent! This is Creamy Garlic Sauce, inspired by Robert Irvine of the Food Network. Robert seems always to keep things simple but he always brings out the best flavors in foods.

Garlic Sauce Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 large cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 large shallot, finely chopped
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves, plus sprigs for garnish
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 cup heavy cream

Making the Garlic Sauce

In a skillet on medium-low heat, add olive oil and shallot. Cook for about 5 minutes until the shallot is soft. Once the shallot has softened, add the minced garlic and stir for 20 to 30 seconds until you smell the garlic flavor.

Reducing the white wine with herbs and garlic.

Then immediately add the wine, parsley, basil, and thyme. Simmer this until the wine has reduced by about ½, which takes about 10 minutes. Keep the heat low so that the garlic does not brown.

At this point, you could strain the sauce with a fine strainer, making it a smooth, creamy sauce. Mary Jo and I thought this would be nice if you had company.

We didn’t strain ours and had small herb and shallot bits in the sauce. (I later made this again and put the sauce in a blender to make a smoother sauce which worked really well).

Turn up the heat a bit and add the heavy cream. Cook this for another 5 minutes until the sauce starts to thicken.

Taste the sauce and add salt and pepper as desired. I added about a half teaspoon of each. This sauce was served right away with the ravioli.

When making this sauce be sure to use fresh garlic, not garlic powder. It is a little more work to peel and mince the garlic cloves but is definitely worth it for flavor.

Creamy garlic sauce from the blender

Variations

This versatile garlic cream sauce recipe can be served with any kind of pasta dish. It is also perfect as a topping on vegetable side dishes.

Try this flavorful sauce on mashed or roasted potatoes. The garlicky flavor is perfect on potatoes.

You could also add some grated parmesan cheese to make a homemade alfredo sauce. I would suggest that you add a third to a half cup of freshly grated parmesan. This great sauce is similar to my Chicken Fettucine Alfredo recipe.

Avoid using pre-shredded cheese as it contains additives to keep it from clumping in the bag. And it does not melt as well as fresh cheese does.

Just add the parmesan cheese after the heavy cream is added and heated up. The white sauce will probably be thick enough with the addition of the cheese. You may not need to keep thickening the sauce on the stove.

To spice the garlic sauce up a bit, you could add a pinch of cayenne pepper or some red pepper flakes.

Leftover Garlic Sauce

Any leftover sauce should be refrigerated in an airtight container for 4 to 5 days.

Reheat in a medium saucepan on low to medium-low heat adding a splash of milk, cream, or even pasta water to thin. Stir to avoid scoring the sauce.

You could use this sauce with any food that is good with garlic. Just about any seafood and it would be great on vegetables. Try this Creamy Garlic Sauce and let me know what you think.

Creamy Garlic Sauce

Garlic sauce to use on meats and vegetables.

4 from 5 votes

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Course: Sauce

Cuisine: American

Keyword: creamy garlic sauce, garlic sauce

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes minutes

Servings: 6 servings

Calories: 144kcal

Author: Joe Boyle

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 4 large garlic cloves, minced
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
• 2 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 cup heavy cream

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Instructions

• In a skillet on low heat, add olive oil and shallot. Cook 4 to 5 minutes until the shallot is soft. Then add the minced garlic and stir for 20 to 30 seconds until the garlic is fragrant. Be careful not to brown the garlic.
• Immediately add the white wine, parsley, basil, and thyme and simmer until the wine has reduced by half, 10 minutes.
• Strain the sauce with a fine strainer if desired.
• Turn the heat to medium high and add the cream. Cook this for 5 minutes until the sauce starts to thicken. Taste and add salt if necessary. Serve warm.

Notes

1. To make a smoother sauce, place the finished sauce in a blender for a minute.
2. Shredded cheese can be added to the hot garlic sauce at the end of cooking. 1/3 to 1/2 cup is all that is needed.
3. You can use different herbs in the sauce like rosemary, tarragon, or dried Italian seasoning. Also, spice the sauce up with a pinch of cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes.

Nutrition

Calories: 144kcal

This recipe post was updated on August 27, 2022.