Cottage Cheese Alfredo
Published 9/5/2023
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This cottage cheese Alfredo is so creamy and packed with 15g of protein per serving all thanks to the blended cottage cheese Alfredo sauce!
Cottage cheese is a high-protein, miracle cheese that we just can’t get enough of. You won’t believe how easy it is to blend up the Alfredo sauce with just a few ingredients of cottage cheese, sauteed garlic and onion, and a splash of heavy cream.
Obsessed with cottage cheese recipes? These cottage cheese pancakes, protein mac and cheese, cookies and cream cottage cheese bark, and cottage cheese ice cream are tasty recipes that are high in protein.
What You Need to Make Cottage Cheese Alfredo
- Cottage cheese: we recommend using 2% or whole milk cottage cheese. Nonfat cottage cheese will work, but the water content will be higher.
- Heavy cream: a little bit of heavy cream is used to both thin out and to thicken the cottage cheese Alfredo sauce.
- Pasta water: don’t forget to set aside some pasta water to add to the pasta sauce. It is used to thicken the pasta sauce and to encourage the sauce to bind to the pasta.
- Grated parmesan: every Alfredo dish needs a little bit of parmesan.
- Fettucini: any long noodle will work for this recipe.
- High-speed blender: a Vitamix or the Beast are our two favorite blenders. Just be sure you have a high-powered blender that will easily cream the ingredients together.
Our Favorite
Beast Blender
The Beast Blender is our go-to blender for smoothies, dips, soups, and everything in between. It’s the perfect size and moderately priced. Oh, and oh-so powerful!
Tips + Variations
When making the cottage cheese Alfredo sauce, be sure you blend the ingredients long enough (2-3 minutes) to ensure all the ingredients are homogenous. This is important so that when the sauce is warmed up it doesn’t not separate.
We kept this dish basic with just pasta and sauce. If you’d like to add vegetables, steamed broccoli is a great addition. Spice things up with red pepper flakes, too!
FAQ
We highly recommend using 2% or whole milk cottage cheese for this recipe.
Yes, any type of past will work for this recipe.
If the pasta sauce is too thin, simmer the sauce over low heat until it is reduced. Remove from heat until it thickens. Then, toss with the pasta.
If the sauce is too thick, add 1-2 tablespoons of additional pasta water to thin out the sauce.
Storage Suggestions
If you are storing leftovers where the pasta and the sauce are already mixed together, let the pasta cool completely and store it in an air-tight container for up to 5 days.
To reheat the pasta, add a few tablespoons of water or heavy cream to a saucepan and the leftovers. Toss to combine. Heat over medium/low heat until smooth and warm.
If you are making this dish ahead of time, we recommend storing the sauce separately from the pasta until ready to serve.
What to Serve with Cottage Cheese Alfredo
Since this cottage cheese Alfredo is a creamy and substantial pasta dish, we recommend serving it alongside a crunchy salad or adding protein to the top.
If you want to add an animal protein to this pasta add this delicious crunchy pan-fried chicken or sauteed shrimp.
This apple burrata salad, chicken Caesar salad, or an easy cucumber salad are great salad options!
Cottage Cheese Alfredo
Ingredients
- 8 oz. fettucini pasta
- 2 tablespoons olive oil or butter
- ½ large white onion, minced
- 3/4 teaspoon sea salt, separated
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup cottage cheese, 2% or whole milk
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- 3 tablespoons starchy pasta water
- 1 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley
- 2-3 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until al dente, about 7-9 minutes.
- While the pasta is cooking, heat the olive oil over medium/high heat. When the olive oil is fragrant, add the onion and season with ¼ teaspoon of salt. Saute for 4-5 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for an additional 1 minute. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
- Set aside ½ cup of pasta water before straining the pasta. Rinse with water and set aside.
- Add the cottage cheese, heavy cream, remaining salt, and the onions and garlic to a high-speed blender. Blend on high for about 30 seconds until smooth. Add 3 tablespoons of pasta water to the blender and blend on high for an additional 2 minutes. The mixture should be bubbly and almost frothy.*
- Transfer the pasta back into the pot and pour the Alfredo sauce over the pasta and toss. Heat over low heat until it reaches the desired temperature.
- Top with fresh parsley, grated parmesan, salt, and cracked pepper.
Tips & Notes
- It is important that the cottage cheese mixture is blended for 2 minutes. It incorporates all ingredients that prevent the sauce from curdling later.
- To avoid curdling, do not heat the pasta over high heat.
Watch It
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Photography: photos taken in this post are by Erin from The Wooden Skillet.
How important is the starchy water from the noodles? I ask because I wanted to make this using spaghetti squash instead of noodles. Could I substitute with just hot water? or maybe hot water and cornstarch?
The starchy water will help thicken the sauce, so we’d recommend a little hot water and cornstarch slurry to compensate. Hope this helps 🙂
I substituted grana padano for parmesan, and the result was still incredibly tasty! Probably one of the best alfredo recipes!
Make this recipe, now! I love alfredo but hate how oily and heavy it can be. This was neither of those things! I followed the recipe exactly and had some broccoli and rotisserie chicken with it. This was seriously so delicious and pretty easy too. I cannot wait to make this again! Thank you!
My favorite alfredo recipe yet! Added some chicken and broccoli.
Thank you, Linley, for sharing this delightful recipe. I made something similar but without the blender. It was delicious, but the texture was not very satisfying. 🙂 I also added cherry tomatoes for a bit of color. Your recipe looks fantastic. I can’t wait to try it.