Easy White Wine Sauce

This white wine sauce is easy to make and packed with zesty, savory flavors of dry wine and Parmesan cheese. Serve as a sauce with pasta, chicken or fish.

Cook with wine? Let’s go! Here’s a white wine sauce for pasta, chicken or fish that’s easy to make and brings out the loveliest flavors. Adding wine to a sauce makes it taste like it’s from a fancy restaurant… but it’s easy to make at home! The tangy taste of wine and the savory taste of parmesan. We love to serve it with pasta: it’s a simple, light sauce that only takes 15 minutes to prepare. But it would also go well with chicken or fish. Here’s what you need to know about making a wine sauce!

Would you like to skip the wine? Cheer up this easy cream sauce.

What wine to use in cooking

First of all, why cook with wine? Italian and French recipes often call for white wine in the ingredient list. It is used to deglaze the pan or add a complex, tart flavor to dishes. It adds incredible complexity to risotto or stir-fry sauces like this white wine sauce!

Which wine to use for cooking? Use any dry white wine here. You want a crisp white wine that doesn’t have a hint of sweetness. Some types of white wine that are great for cooking are:

• Sauvignon Blanc
• Chardonnay
• Pinot Grigio
• Pinot Gris
• Dry vermouth

You might have dry vermouth on hand for cocktails (like the Classic Martini). But it is also a cooking wine! Its crunchy and screaming taste is very versatile.

Ingredients for the white wine sauce

Making a white wine sauce is easier than you think! It may sound fancy and French. But it only takes 15 minutes to create a short list of ingredients. The ingredients for the white wine sauce are:

• Dry white wine
• Garlic
• shallot
• butter
• Plain Flour (alternatively gluten-free flour)
• cream (or milk substitute)
• parmesan cheese

How to Make a White Wine Sauce: Tips!

• Fry the garlic and shallot: only 1 minute! Here’s a way to make your whole kitchen smell divine! Melt the butter and sauté the spices. Be careful: you don’t want them to tan! Just enough to be fragrant and transparent.
• Add flour: like a quick roux! Flour acts as a thickener. It’s like a quick version of a roux, a way to thicken creamy sauces like in our Easy Cream Sauce.
• Cook with wine and cream 3 minutes.
• Add the parmesan and beat the sauce until it melts.

Is the white wine sauce alcoholic?

Does the white wine sauce contain alcohol? Yes. But only traces per serving (about 0.8 ounces). We felt comfortable serving this pasta to our 3 year old. But you should only do what makes you feel good! If you are alcohol sensitive, pregnant, or serving these children, here are some things you should know:

• You may have heard that when you cook food with alcohol, all of the alcohol burns off. That’s wrong: Typically, after 15 minutes of cooking a food with wine, about 50% of the original alcohol remains.
• This sauce is simmered for 5 minutes, leaving about 85% of the alcohol.
• The recipe uses ½ cup or 4 ounces of white wine for 4 servings. So that would be 0.80 ounces of alcohol per serving.

Serve with white wine pasta sauce

Would you like to serve it with pasta? Here are a few things you should know about making white wine pasta sauce:

• It makes enough for 8 ounces of pasta. It works like 4 modest servings. Depending on what you’re serving, you can increase the amount of pasta to 12 or 16 ounces.
• It works with any type of pasta! Long pasta, short pasta, spaghetti, penne or rigatoni, any pasta shape.
• Add chopped herbs for garnish, if desired. We garnished with some finely chopped Italian parsley for color. You can use basil, thyme, or oregano instead.
• Make it a meal with plant-based proteins and a salad. Add these Easy Cannellini Beans or this Easy Kidney Bean and Arugula Salad in 5 minutes.

Other ways to serve white wine sauce

There are other ways to serve this white wine sauce than pasta! Here are a few ideas:

This recipe is…

Vegetarian. For gluten free use gluten free flour.

More pasta sauce recipes

Want more pasta sauces? Here are some homemade pasta sauce recipes to try: