The Secret Ingredient for Making Jarred Alfredo Sauce Taste Like it Came from an Italian Restaurant

When you want a rich, creamy pasta dinner, you've got to go with Alfredo sauce. The rich sauce is traditionally made with butter, heavy cream and Parmesan cheese, but other variations can include garlic, herbs or other cheeses. The sauce is known for having a silky texture and cheesy flavor. It's great over pasta and pairs well with vegetables or seafood.

The best Alfredo sauce is the one you make from scratch, but DIYing the sauce isn't always in the cards. Thankfully, there's store-bought Alfredo sauce. Even the top-tier and most expensive store-bought Alfredo sauces fall short of the homemade version, but that doesn’t mean your jarred sauce can't be better. Here's our favorite way to jazz up jarred Alfredo.

Related: How to Upgrade a Jar of Marinara Sauce

😋😋 SIGN UP to get delicious recipes, handy kitchen hacks & more in our daily Pop Kitchen newsletter 🍳🍔

Why You Should Add White Wine to Jarred Alfredo Sauce

It only takes one simple ingredient to make your jarred sauce better—white wine.

To elevate the flavor of your store-bought Alfredo sauce, use a dry white wine, like Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio. (This isn't the time to use a sweet wine, like Riesling or Moscato.) You can use the wine you're drinking with dinner or whatever you have on hand. It's best to cook with a wine you'd enjoy drinking, but that doesn't mean it has to be expensive.

You can add wine to your jarred sauce in a few different ways. You can pour about 1/4 cup in a saucepan and simmer it for a few minutes to reduce it, then add your jarred sauce or you can add the jarred sauce to the pan, gently heat it up, and stir in a few splashes of white wine. A dry white wine enhances Alfredo sauce by adding acidity, which balances the richness of the cream and butter.

You can stop there, or you can get a little more creative and add in some sautéed garlic, a generous amount of black pepper, an herb, like fresh or dried oregano, or stir in a handful of spinach for a fresh twist. What you add depends on what you like and how much time you have, but if you want a quick way to give your jarred Alfredo sauce more flavor, don't skip the white wine.

Up Next:

Related: How to Make Pasta 10x Better, According to Chef José Andrés