Pesto Cream Sauce

mailbelle's Note:

Serve this delicious sauce over your favorite pasta for a quick, delectable meal. Do NOT substitute half-and-half for the heavy cream if you want a thick sauce. Heavy cream contains at least 36% milkfat. Half-and-half, just like the name says, is half milk and half cream and is no more than 18% milkfat. If half-and-half is used, the sauce will only be half as thick as it would if heavy cream were used. Also, if the amount of butter is reduced, that will also make the sauce thinner, as butter is 80% milkfat.

• Total Time: 15 mins
• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Cook Time: 10 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup prepared pesto sauce
• 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, shredded

Directions:

1. Heat heavy whipping cream and water in a small, heavy saucepan over medium heat until hot but not boiling.
2. Add butter, pesto sauce, garlic powder and salt. Reduce heat and continue to cook about 5 more minutes over low heat.
3. Stir in 1/2 cup parmesan cheese until melted.

Reviews

[jolyn421]

Yum Yum Yum!!!!! I made chicken and bow tie pasta and added your wonderful sauce and it was scrumptious :) I made it exactly as written and I change anything next time it will be to use real garlic rather than powder.... Thanks for sharing.

[JOY1998]

This is great sauce!!! Of course you can't use a substitution of half and half and cut down the butter. I think if you do that you are ruining the flavor of the sauce. Excellent sauce. I served with Olive Garden Toasted Ravioli. I used my homemade pesto sauce which I made from basil for my garden. I will definitely make this again and hope others try this recipe.

[Karen67]

I was looking for a creamy pesto sauce to use for some mushroom ravioli and some homemade pesto. I did sub half & half for the heavy cream and cut down the butter to 1 tbsp. It was rich enough with my changes, but was way too runny. I added some cornstarch, which helped a bit, but it still wasn't thick enough and didn't have enough pesto flavor.