Pesto Sauce vs. Alfredo Sauce - Trattoria il Panino (2024)

FAQs

Pesto Sauce vs. Alfredo Sauce - Trattoria il Panino? ›

Thicker pasta sauces like alfredo pair best with long and flat noodles that are capable of absorbing the sauce without becoming soggy. This is why it works best with pasta shapes like fettuccine. Pesto, on the other hand, pairs best with rounded and slimmer noodles like spaghetti.

The Bottom Line. Pesto is higher in calories than some sauces but it's also made with super-healthy ingredients, like basil, olive oil and nuts. I find it's a great way to add more flavor to pasta dishes and even vegetables and proteins.

Pesto is a sauce made of crushed basil, garlic, olive oil, pine nuts, and Parmesan cheese. It is usually used as a condiment or spread, and is not typically used as a sauce for pasta. Pasta sauce is a sauce made from tomatoes, herbs, and other ingredients used to coat pasta.

Marinara Sauce

This is probably the most common form of pasta sauce, and for good reason too! Marinara sauce is typically made using tomatoes, garlic and other seasonings. You'll often see this in base lasagna dishes, spaghetti and meatballs, and other pasta staples.

What is Pink Sauce Pasta? Pink Sauce Pasta is cooked pasta tossed with equal parts red marinara sauce and white alfredo sauce which combine to make – you got it – a pink-hued sauce. Again, as simple as the combination sounds, it is mind blowingly delicious.

It has a pretty high sodium content unless you make it from scratch, but both versions have an added protein boost. Alfredo sauce is based on cream and cheese as its two primary ingredients. Neither sauce is going to win a health competition, but pesto is the superior option for that reason.

The healthiest pasta sauces get most of their fat from olive oil (marinara) or olive oil and nuts (pesto), not cream or cheese (alfredo). And the good guys don't pile too much salt or sugar on top of your spaghetti. Here's how to find them. Check the photos for some great-tasting Best Bites and Honorable Mentions.

Marinara. Marinara is a red sauce consisting of olive oil, garlic, tomatoes, and herbs. Onions might be sometimes added to the combination of these ingredients, and it also might be transformed into another sauce such as Arrabbiata or puttanesca with the addition of different ingredients.

Alfredo Sauce: Alfredo is a rich, creamy white sauce mixed with butter and grated Parmesan cheese seasoned with pepper, and sometimes nutmeg. Alfredo sauce is typically served on fettuccine noodles and topped with vegetables, chicken or shrimp.

If you're feeling fancy, you can call this Alfredo sauce by its classic French name: Mornay sauce. If you're feeling even fancier, you can explain to your adoring dinner companions that a Mornay sauce is just a Bechamel to which you've added a generous amount of cheese.

What do Italians call alfredo sauce? ›

Did you know that the term “Alfredo” is not used often in Italy? There are many different combinations of butter and parmesan similar to what we define using the name we recognize, but Italians call all of these combinations “al burro”.

However, these theories don't really explain why there's a lack of consistency — both across regions and within the five boroughs of New York — for why some use the word sauce and others use the word gravy.

Because its ingredients include olive oil, nuts, and cheese, pesto can be high in calories and fat. However, the fat is primarily unsaturated and may have heart health benefits. Pesto is also full of antioxidants that can help protect your cells from damage.

If your main goal is to cut calories and fat, go for the marinara. If, however, you'd like to add some extra nutrients via greens such as basil or kale, and nuts, such as pine nuts or walnuts, opt for the pesto every once in a while. It's a tasty alternative to marinara, and a little goes a long way.

Given all of the above, pesto can undoubtedly be considered a healthy food, and as long as you keep track of portions, it can also be part of a diet that supports a healthy weight. Pesto is nutrient-dense, and because of its fat content, it's also calorically dense.

As you would expect, pesto's wider variety of ingredients means it does slightly better in the vitamin and mineral stakes. Pesto outsmarts tomato sauce in many of these, but the pasta sauce still provides a sizeable chunk of your recommended daily targets.