parmesan cheesy cream sauce

Easy Cheesy Cream Sauce

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Any cheese lovers out there?? This easy cheesy cream sauce is created with just 6 ingredients you probably already have in pantry! Whip this together in 20 minutes for a delicious cream sauce to pour over your favorite pasta.

This post is part of our Basic Cooking Skills series. Each week we will be doing a deep-dive into one basic cooking skill and a brand new recipe to accompany it to practice that newfound skill. Check back throughout the series for updates and new posts.


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what is a roux?

A roux is a thickening agent that is used in lots of staple sauces in the cooking world. With one part flour one part oil it is extremely easy to make and serves as a great foundation for a nice, thick sauce.

Check out Making a Roux to learn more about using a roux in the kitchen.

Bechamel: the the classic cream sauce

In this Basic Cooking Skills post we briefly touched on mother sauces, and one in particularly being a bechamel.

A bechamel is a white sauce created from a roux and milk or cream. It’s a major building blocks to more complex sauces, such as a cheese sauce.

Think about this from the ground up: first we have a roux. The addition of milk/cream to the roux creates the bechamel. The bechamel can then be transformed by various cheeses, broths, and herbs into alfredo, cheddar macaroni and cheese, southern gravy, au gratin, and more.

Flour+Butter=Roux
Roux+Cream/Milk= Bechamel
Bechamel+Cheese, Broth, Herbs= Various sauces

how to: make a roux

butter flour

Using equal parts butter and flour, melt butter in a pan over medium heat.

roux

After the butter has melted fully, mix in the flour and cook for 1-2 minutes stirring occasionally. The mixture should thicken up like a thin paste.

And there’s your roux!

how to: make a bechamel

bechamel sauce ingredients

Pour cream, salt, and pepper into the flour mixture. Stir and ensure you incorporate all of the roux into the cream!

bechamel sauce

Simmer for 10 minutes or until the sauce is nice and thick, almost like a gravy.

thick cream sauce

Voila! A classic bechamel!

how to: create an easy cheesy cream sauce

To transform the bechamel into a cheese sauce, grate fresh parmesan and mozzarella cheese. Fresh grated cheese is key to elevating the cheesy flavor of the sauce!

grated parmesan cheese fresh

Pour the cheese into the sauce and heat until melted fully, about 2-3 minutes. Grate as much cheese to fit your preference; I grated about ½ a cup. Give your sauce a taste and adjust as you like.

parmesan cheese cream sauce

Now you have this dreamy cheese sauce to serve over your favorite pasta dish!

I made mine as a last minute lunch idea to coat some Trader Joe’s frozen ravioli. This shouldn’t taste this good for being so simple and cheap.

cheese cream sauce

Ingredients Needed

Materials Needed

parmesan cheesy cream sauce

Easy Cheesy Cream Sauce

With only 6 ingredients, this cheesy cream sauce is so simple to make to complement your favorite pasta or chicken dish, completed in under 20 minutes!
5 from 7 votes
Course Side Dish
Cuisine Italian

Ingredients
  

  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 1 cup heavy cream (or half heavy cream, half milk)
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp pepper
  • 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/2 cup fresh parmesan and/or mozzarella

Instructions
 

  • Melt the butter of medium heat. Stir in the flour to create the roux, cooking for 1-2 minutes.
  • Pour in the cream, salt, pepper, and nutmeg and fully incorporate the roux. Simmer on low for 10 minutes or until the sauce is thick.
  • Add the cheese and continue cooking 2 minutes or until melted. Serve warm over your favorite pasta.
Keyword cheese, cream, sauce

Customize Easy Cheesy Cream Sauce

As mentioned above, a bechamel can turn into endless sauces by the addition of a few ingredients!

  • Switch up the parmesan for cheddar to create an amazing yellow sauce for macaroni and cheese.
  • Mix in mustard for a sauce that’s great over pork.
  • Create a seafood sauce by adding shrimp or crayfish butter.
  • Add even more milk and pepper to create a breakfast gravy.

Pin me!

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pin easy cream sauce
easy cheesy cream saue

What are your favorite recipes that use a roux? It’s amazing how a little flour and butter can enhance a dish! Share in the comments below.

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82 thoughts on “Easy Cheesy Cream Sauce”

  1. OMG! This sounds so good! I’m going to have to make this! It sounds perfect for pasta or maybe a chicken sauce! Thank you so much for this!

  2. This brings back so many memories! My mum was a chef for a while and she used to show me and my brother how to make a roux and a bechemal sauce. Sadly I have food intolerances now so I’d have to sub GF flour and dairy-free cheese/cream, but I’m sure it would work just as well! I might give it a go using this recipe as a guide – thanks for sharing!

  3. 5 stars
    What a great post! Using a roux to make sauces and gravies is something I personally use often, and something I think people assume is harder than it really is! Very informative post, thanks for sharing!

  4. This looks so cheesy and tasty, yummy!! Saw this post on Instagram & Twitter and I just had to come on here to check this recipe. I’ll be sharing this recipe with my sister (who’s insanely obsessed with cheese) Thanks for sharing! x

    GABBY

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  7. I’m always wary of store-bought sauces because they’re usually chock-full of onion, which I’m super duper allergic to. However, making something like this at home is an awesome alternative, and it doesn’t sound all that difficult either! I’m so glad you shared this!

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