The Tip Every Home Cook Should Know For Homemade Garlic Parmesan Sauce

If you took away sauces from any chef's repertoire, you might just render them helpless. A good sauce is key to many of the world's greatest dishes, and there are some pretty extraordinary ones to choose from, like a rich, creamy, bursting with flavor, good old-fashioned garlic Parmesan sauce. This classic sauce is a must for any cook striving for versatility because its uses are practically endless — although you may want to avoid eating something garlicky at an important dinner! It can be served with pasta, seafood, vegetables, and a wide range of meat dishes from turkey and pork to meatballs or chicken wings. The sky's the limit when pairing Parmesan and garlic in a delicious sauce, but in order to pull it off perfectly every time, it helps to know an important trick.

Some home cooks struggle with consistency. Not consistently showing up to the table but getting this sauce to the perfect texture. If you make your garlic Parmesan sauce too thin, you wind up with a runny, watery mess that won't stick to food. If you make it too thick, you've got a clumpy goop that doesn't coat your food evenly and creates an awkward mouthfeel. So, when it comes to getting your sauce just right, know that it will thicken up once it comes off the stove. You'll want to find that sweet spot so you can take it off the burner and let the residual heat take its course.

We've all had to do some culinary first aid, whether it is trimming off the burned bits of a roast or adjusting the saltiness of soup before you serve it. But while some hacks for saving a kitchen mistake are a bit tricky and require some know-how (like balancing a salty soup with some added acid), fixing a garlic Parmesan sauce that is either too thin or too thick is actually pretty easy.

If your sauce is running a bit thin and you don't have the time to wait for it to thicken on its own, you can simply add a bit of cornstarch to help things along (this stuff is a bit of kitchen magic that lets you sear steaks like a pro, too). You'll simply want to mix one part water with one part cornstarch, add it to the sauce, and whisk well to incorporate. Keep cooking until the sauce reaches the right consistency and the cornstarch has been completely dissolved.

If you've got the opposite problem and you've let our sauce thicken too much, you don't have to toss it out and start over. That's a waste of perfectly good ingredients and time. Instead, simply add in more liquid for a quick fix. You can add some cream, although that will also add to the sauce's richness (which isn't necessarily a bad thing), or you can add some more broth. Just like you would with adding cornstarch to a too-thin sauce, you'll want to whisk in your liquid to make sure it is thoroughly mixed, then serve it before it gets too thick on you again.