Made with little more than cream, butter, and cheese, alfredo sauce is effortless and delicious—and it only gets better when you add subtle hints of garlic and ground black pepper. The best alfredo should be comforting, sure, but it shouldn’t be bland or boring. The same goes for the best jarred alfredo sauce. Over the course of two separate taste tests, we opened up many varieties of jarred alfredo sauce. We dunked pasta into the sauce, almost like chips and dip, and also ate it straight off a spoon. We want our alfredo to be creamy, cheesy, and buttery, with a salty bite and hopefully some nice peppery flavor. Herbs aren’t necessary, but they aren’t unwelcome either. Butter is paramount to the best alfredo sauce, and the stuff that ranked highest had a pronounced butter flavor. (After all, actual Roman alfredo is all butter, no cream.) More than anything, we want a version of alfredo sauce that makes us feel like we’re in a booth at a neighborhood Italian joint with checkered tablecloths and a killer chicken parm on the menu. Go ahead and jar that experience.
Here’s our creamy, dreamy list of the best jar alfredo sauce you can buy on the shelf or in the refrigerated section of your local grocery store.
- Cucina Antica Truffle
If you’re browsing this list in the hopes of finding something new and exciting to shake up your alfredo sauce routine, this is the best jarred alfredo sauce for the job. The truffle flavor is funky and earthy and not overly chemically like some truffle flavored things can be. The sauce itself is grainy in a good way—it signals that there’s real grated cheese in this jar of alfredo sauce. This should not be your first foray into the world of jarred alfredo, but it’s here when you’re looking for something equally creamy but a little bit different. And it’s keto-friendly! — Justine Sterling
Credit: Merc / Sprouts
- Legnano Classic Italian Alfredo
I fought hard for this one even though it has its faults, including a lemony flavor that’s bizarre considering there’s no lemon listed in the ingredients. The sharp, acidic bite was a hurdle for most of the tasters, but, if you can get past that or if you like a particularly zingy alfredo sauce, Legano has a lot of other wonderful flavors. First of all, this was the most peppery of the jarred alfredo sauces we tasted. My personal belief is that coarse black pepper wholeheartedly belongs in alfredo, so much so that it’s the fourth most important ingredient for me (behind butter, cream, and cheese). The cheese is really tasty, and you’ll even see nice little morsels of Grana Padano floating around the jar. Legano is salty and peppery and cheesy and creamy, but the damn acidity is notched up too high. It’s not the best alfredo sauce in a jar, but I still say this is worth a try. — Danny Palumbo
Credit: Ryan Martin / Amazon
- Rao’s Homemade Alfredo Sauce
Rao’s alfredo sauce is good enough, but it doesn’t exactly live up to their iconic-tasting red sauce, which is some of the best jarred marinara sauce we’ve tasted. It’s a little brown and nutty, and the flavor is very, very mild. It reads more like a bechamel sauce (think: cream, flour, and butter) than a classic alfredo sauce. Bechamel is great, though, especially layered in a rich, hearty meat lasagna—and that would be a good use for this sauce, too. Hell, throw this alfredo sauce in a vegetable lasagna or top a veggie pizza with it. I’d dip some crust in this, no doubt. The mildness and quality ingredients make Rao’s a totally safe pick for the best jarred alfredo sauce. — Danny Palumbo
Credit: Ryan Martin / Amazon
- Classico Four Cheese Alfredo
This alfredo sauce is made with Romano, Parmesan, Asiago, and ricotta. Can you taste the nuances of each cheese in the sauce? No, you cannot. But they all come together to create one seriously cheesy sauce. Made with real cream and a few good cranks of the pepper grinder, this extremely savory sauce is the best premade alfredo sauce if you always find yourself reaching for another spoonful of grated parm. — Justine Sterling
Credit: Merc / Target
- Whole Foods Market Alfredo Sauce with Roasted Garlic
Don’t pay too much attention to the “roasted garlic” on the label. It’s very, very subtle. In fact, we wish there was more of a garlicky flavor to this alfredo sauce. Even still, it qualifies as some of the best store bought alfredo sauce out there, especially if you’re already shopping at Whole Foods. The Grana Padano cheese in the sauce is nutty, and when you pair that with the actual nutmeg in the mix, you get an aromatic, almost woody-tasting cream sauce—absolutely perfect for a fall pasta dish. It might need a little help seasoning wise, but Whole Foods makes a solid, standard alfredo with good ingredients. — Danny Palumbo
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- Classico Creamy Alfredo
Blackened chicken alfredo was a chain-restaurant menu staple in the 1990s, and this sauce would be right at home with peppery slices of breast meat and some over-cooked fettuccine noodles. It’s pretty much all cream and cheese, but that’s not a horrible thing. This needs a bit of extra flavor, making it a great candidate for some added heat. If sautéing up some blackened chicken is too much trouble, just sprinkle in some crushed red pepper, granulated garlic, and kosher salt —that’ll liven things up a bit. The truth is, most brands don’t exactly nail the flavor of homemade alfredo—that’s where you and your spice rack come in. Classico is totally serviceable if you put in a little work on your end. — Danny Palumbo
Credit: Ryan Martin / Amazon
- Bertolli D’Italia Alfredo
While the other alfredo sauces on this list are thinner and butterier, this one feels like pure, thick cream. Bertolli is also a bit lemony, which isn’t necessarily a defining characteristic of alfredo sauce, but the added flavor is good nonetheless. You get a bit of that fake butter flavor, but somehow it works. Think: Olive Garden alfredo. If that sounds good to you, this is the best alfredo sauce brand for your dinner. — Danny Palumbo
Credit: Ryan Martin / Target
- Little Italy in the Bronx Alfredo
This is another parmigiano/romano blend alfredo sauce with a nutty flavor and buttery consistency that we love. In fact, this one manages to channel how I make alfredo at home: I use cream, yes, but I toss in a ton of butter, too. That butteriness coupled with a peppery bite takes me back to my days in a restaurant kitchen. This sauce is a strong choice, it just didn’t quite live up to our top picks in terms of overall flavor. — Danny Palumbo
Credit: Ryan Martin / Amazon
- Buitoni Alfredo Sauce
This refrigerated alfredo sauce from Buitoni is extremely creamy. Like, really, really creamy. As in, fresh cream and real butter—no movie theater popcorn butter here! And it’s very, very savory. This sauce deserves to be sopped up with crusty bread. It almost comes off like a mornay sauce (essentially a cheesy bechamel sauce). It’s the best store bought alfredo sauce if you’re looking to bake up some pasta shells. And seriously, don’t forget the bread to scoop up the leftovers. — Justine Sterling
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Trader Joe’s Alfredo Sauce
Trader Joe’s can be hit or miss with classic grocery store staples, but this alfredo sauce is a big old check mark in the hit column. It’s shockingly cheesy and creamy for a shelf-stable alfredo sauce. It really tastes homemade. And it’s also really cheap. The Romano cheese adds a nutty kick that sets it apart from the others—it almost comes off like there’s fresh grated nutmeg in the mix. It’s definitely the best alfredo sauce brand if you’re a TJ’s shopper—and it would be heaven on their butternut squash ravioli, the official pasta of fall.
Credit: Merc
- Giovanni Rana Alfredo Sauce
Giovanni Rana is the closest thing to restaurant-quality alfredo on this list. It’s creamy, salty, and buttery, just like we want. Rana uses a combination of Parmigiano Reggiano and Pecorino Romano cheese, giving this sauce a well-balanced, pungent, salty bite. Parmigiano is great, but Romano is what provides that extra oomph of sharpness. This sauce actually tastes like there’s butter in it, too, instead of just being all cream. Plus, there’s a subtle amount of garlic flavor that doesn’t upstage the sauce itself. Everything about this alfredo sauce is balanced and delicious. Rana is clearly the best store bought alfredo sauce. Find it in the refrigerated section with the fresh pasta.
Credit: Ryan Martin / Walmart
Best Truffle Alfredo
Best Peppery
Best for Lasagna
Best Super Cheesy
Best for Fall
Best w/ Blackened Chicken
Best Creamy
Best Buttery
Best for Baked Pasta
Best Shelf Stable
Best of the Best
Other alfredo sauce brands we tried: Gelson’s, Great Value, Sonoma Gourmet Creamy Spinach Alfredo, Bertoli d’Italia Four Cheese, Classico Roasted Garlic, Good & Gather Roasted Garlic, Ragu Classic, Good & Gather
As someone who strongly dislikes pepper, I’m afraid I might disagree with most of these, but I also acknowledge that disliking pepper is weird. What’s the best Alfredo with little to no pepper, I wonder?
Rana doesn’t have pepper in its ingredient list.
Just a tad sad that the classic Ragu brand wasn’t used. It’s a nice, you know what you’re getting, type of sauce. It’s cheesy and creamy, and while not the most robust, complex, or most varied, you know what you’re getting and it hits the spot.