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One Pot Creamy Garlic Alfredo is super simple, quick, and tastes amazing. It comes together in under 30 minutes, cooks in one pot, and is a pasta recipe you and your family will love.

April is garlic month. Did ya know that? I feel like we celebrate garlic every time we cook because almost every recipe, except for desserts, starts with at least 3 to 4 cloves of garlic. I’m sure there are some desserts that have garlic in them, too. I just haven’t felt brave enough to try them.

What is garlic?

I mean, almost everyone has it in their kitchen all the time. And almost everyone cooks with it. But do you know what garlic really is? Where it comes from? What plant family does it belong to? If you do, then more power to you!

Garlic is in the allium family. This family includes onions, leeks, shallots, and chives. It’s classified as a vegetable as far as the actual plant goes. Culinarily? Is that even a word? Anyway, in the culinary world it’s more of an herb type ingredient. There are few recipes where it’s most if not all garlic. Even garlic soup isn’t all garlic.

Garlic is native to South and Central Asia and parts of Iran. Garlic has been used for cooking and medicine for centuries. However, because of all the variations of wild garlic, it’s not easy to pinpoint exactly where garlic comes from.

But garlic was found in the tomb of Tutankhamun. I didn’t see that when the exhibit came to the Smithsonian. It was an amazing exhibit and one of the reasons I wanted to learn about Ancient Egypt in college. Romans ate garlic and the Greeks not only ate garlic but left it as an offering to Hecate the goddess of boundaries, transitions, and many other various topics.

When chopping garlic, it smells pungent and sharp. But the flavor of garlic mellows when cooked properly. I say cooked properly because it’s easy to burn garlic which makes it taste even more pungent and sharp. Some swear by chopping it and others swear by thinly slicing it. Most recipes start with garlic and onions, but depending on what you’re cooking, it might be better to add the garlic part of the way through the cooking time of the recipe.

What is in One Pot Creamy Garlic Alfredo?

Such simple ingredients. I’d be willing to bet you have everything in your kitchen right now to make this easy and delicious pasta recipe. There’s pasta and garlic, of course, but there’s chicken stock, cream, nutmeg, white pepper, and crushed red pepper. That’s it. I told you it was a simple recipe!

And easy to make. From start to finish it took me less than 30 minutes. That includes peeling and chopping the garlic. But, of course, I have a handy dandy mini hand chopper I got from Tupperware. It’s the most convenient little chopper that we use all the time! More so than the small Cuisinart.

Once you chop the garlic heat the pan up with some oil and butter in there. I had mine on medium-high heat because I wanted the chicken broth to come to a boil quickly. I sauteed the garlic quickly stirring it constantly to make sure it didn’t burn and get bitter. When it started to brown, I added the chicken broth, heavy cream, and the pasta.

Once the broth came to a boil, I turned the heat to medium and simmered mine for about 15 minutes and checked the consistency of the pasta. It was a little too al dente for my taste, so I simmered it for an additional 10 minutes. That was the perfect amount of time for the pasta to be al dente and perfect for serving.

If your pasta absorbs all the liquid and has none to make a sauce with, then feel free to add either more cream or chicken broth. Either one will work well. Of course, I would go with cream to make it even more creamy.

Once the pasta is al dente, stir in the Parmesan cheese, nutmeg, white pepper, and crushed red pepper. Feel free to omit the crushed red pepper if you don’t like things to be spicy. I like a little kick with my creamy and cheesy pasta. I also like a little nutmeg in the cheese sauces. It’s a flavor that really compliments cheese sauces and heightens the flavors in the sauce.

What does one pot creamy garlic alfredo taste like?

First, there’s the bite of the al dente pasta. The hubs and I do not see eye to eye on the degree of doneness for pasta. He likes his a little more done than me. I like mine with a little bite to it. I don’t like my pasta too soft.

The sauce is super creamy and delicious. It has a hint of chicken flavor because I used chicken broth. If you don’t want that try veggie broth or maybe just some water. That might be a bit bland, but it’s your pasta dish. Use whatever liquid you want. Just make sure you use the same amount of liquid. Otherwise, your pasta might be under or over done depending on how much liquid you add.

There’s the salty and rich flavor of Parmesan that pairs with the creamy sauce. Then there’s the spice from the crushed red pepper. Finally, the nutmeg brings all the flavors of this one pot creamy garlic alfredo together.

It’s so creamy, rich, and delicious. And would be perfect topped with some grilled or pan seared chicken. Hence the chicken broth. I had some leftover air-fryer chicken that I put on top of my one pot creamy garlic alfredo for a late lunch this weekend. It was a perfect topping for the pasta. Or a nice side salad would be great to serve with this pasta.

Great Garlic Recipes

• Brown Butter Garlic Knots from Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks
• Garlic Butter Sauce (for Seafood and More) from Art of Natural Living
• Hawaiian Garlic Shrimp from Palatable Pastime
• One Pot Creamy Garlic Alfredo from A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures
• Spicy Garlic Hummus from That Recipe

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