If you are looking for a quick and easy butter sauce for pasta recipe that is absolutely delicious, look no further than this white wine garlic butter sauce for pasta, seafood or vegetables. This creamy and flavorful white wine butter sauce is perfect for a weeknight dinner or even a fancy dinner party. Enjoy it as is or with your favorite additions.

closeup of white wine garlic butter sauce

About this white wine butter sauce

This easy to make white wine butter sauce with garlic uses the techniques that you use to make a beurre blanc sauce. In a sense, you can call this a beurre blanc pasta.

If you have never made this type of sauce before, it is very easy! The idea is you are whisking the butter portion of this sauce into the wine and garlic which helps thicken the sauce which makes it delicious and creamy.

My family calls this an elevated butter pasta. I love that it's fancy enough to serve to guests and easy enough for a weeknight meal. My kind of pasta recipe!

White wine garlic butter sauce ingredients

This is such an easy butter sauce recipe for pasta. You only need a few ingredients:

12 tablespoons unsalted butter cut into small cubes
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 cup dry white wine like Gavi, Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc.
Olive oil.
Kosher salt and pepper to taste
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
Chopped parsley for garnish (optional)

How to make this butter white wine sauce for pasta

reducing wine for white wine butter sauce

First part of the white wine garlic butter sauce:

Reduce the wine.
Cook the minced garlic until fragrant, but not browned.

whisking butter for white wine garlic butter sauce

white wine garlic butter sauce for pasta

Whisk in the butter:

Now add a few cubes of butter at a time to the pan and whisk it until the butter melts.
Keep doing this until all the butter is used.

By whisking in the butter in this white wine sauce, the butter sauce becomes nice and thick. This is the beurre blanc method I was mentioning earlier.

adding pasta to white wine garlic butter sauce

Assemble it:

Cook the pasta until al dente. Reserve some of the pasta water for the sauce.
Add the cooked pasta to the white wine garlic butter sauce and toss well. Add in Italian parsley if you are using it.
Serve with fresh Parmesan at the table.

This white wine garlic butter sauce for pasta is sure to become one of your go-to recipes when you need something that is both quick and satisfyingly delicious!

Best white wine to cook with

One of my favorite white wines from Italy is the Gavi wine and it makes a really nice white wine to cook with as well. If you love pinot grigio, you will love the Gavi varietal of wine. I find it is smoother and lighter.

Here are some more great white wines to cook with:

Pinot Grigio
Chardannoy
Sauvignon Blanc

Of course, always make sure that whatever wine you cook with is one that you love to drink. Never buy cooking wine since the flavors of this subpar kind of wine will reduce down and become more pronounce in the dish that you are making.

If you are not a wine drinker, you can ask someone at your local wine store for some recommendations. If you have extra wine leftover, pour it into ice cube trays and freeze for later meals.

White wine pasta sauce

For this white wine pasta sauce, you can use any shape pasta that you prefer. I love using Casarecce (what you see in the pictures), Cavatappi, bow tie pasta (also called Farfalle) or penne pasta.

Storing

This white wine butter sauce is best made right before you are ready to eat it. The white wine butter sauce only takes minutes to make so there is no need to have to make it ahead of time.

If you do have any leftover pasta that you mixed into this white wine sauce, go ahead and store that in a container with a lid in the fridge for up to 2 days.

Pairing Ideas

Here are some of our favorite things to serve with this white wine sauce:

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5 from 1 vote