Pasta Cream Sauce

4.83 from 51 votes

An easy pasta cream sauce recipe that could be made with only 3 ingredients and will rival any Italian restaurant pasta

Prep Time5

Cook Time10

Total Time15

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Keyword: pasta cream sauce

Servings:

Heat the cream in a pan over low heat but do not let it boil.
Take it off the heat and whisk in the grated Parmesan cheese until melted and smooth. Taste the sauce and add the salt as needed. (Salt is an important ingredient here, so do not skip it.)
To dress the pasta with the cream sauce, add the pasta directly to the pan with the sauce and gently shake the pan to coat the pasta with the sauce. Add up to 1/3 cup of the reserved pasta water to loosen the sauce.
Serve immediately.

It may be slightly more expensive to use 100% durum semolina pasta from Italy, but the difference in quality makes this worthwhile. It is also much easier to cook your pasta to al dente - which means it has a slight chew - when you use durum pasta.
Be sure to salt the water you boil your pasta, but don't add oil. The pasta will need time to absorb the salt from the water so it isn't bland.
There is no need to add flour or starch to thicken the sauce because the fat in the heavy or double cream is enough to make the perfect sauce. It will coat the pasta but not be too thick.
Don’t drain the pasta without reserving some pasta water. It can be used to add to the sauce later to thin it out, while also adding creaminess. The pasta will absorb a portion of the sauce very quickly once the two are combined, so a little pasta water can help keep things saucy, while also silky smooth.
Dress your hot pasta with sauce before serving, rather than serving the sauce on the side. Leaving the pasta undressed can mean that it becomes dry and flavourless.