4 Ingredient Garlic Butter Sauce (For Pasta + Beyond!)

Just 4 ingredients and about 10 minutes total are all it takes to get this incredibly flavorful garlic butter sauce ready to top all your favorites! I like to toss it with al dente linguine for an easy weeknight dinner, but it also tastes great with your favorite roasted fish, sauteed shrimp, or seared steak!

Garlic butter makes everything better.

Fresh garlic, butter, parsley, and a few minutes on the stove. This sauce is embarrassingly easy and goes with basically anything. Pasta, seafood, a good steak – you name it! Make it once, and you’ll find yourself putting it on everything.

Here’s what you’ll need.

Here’s how it all comes together.

Add ingredients to a small saucepan over medium-low heat.

Stir together and cook until the butter melts. Cook for about a minute or so until the garlic becomes fragrant.

Toss with your favorite pasta, or seafood, or use it as a delicious bread dipping sauce!

Things I learned while testing this recipe.

• This recipe cooks in just minutes and it’s important to cook over medium-low heat so that the garlic doesn’t burn. Once you add the garlic, just stir it for about a minute or so until it becomes fragrant. Any longer and you’ll risk the garlic burning and ruining the sauce.
• Add some lemon juice for an extra zing and a pinch of black pepper! A squeeze of fresh lemon juice (or even a bit of zest!) will give this butter garlic sauce another dimension that pairs well with things like roasted salmon or chicken. You can also add a half teaspoon or so of Dijon mustard or your favorite spices to add some more depth to the flavors as well.
• If you want a creamy garlic butter instead of a sauce, skip the stove and just combine room-temperature butter with the garlic, parsley, and a pinch of salt. This will give you the perfect garlic butter recipe to spread on your favorite freshly baked bread.

Here’s how I’d use this garlic butter sauce.

Get creative with this because garlic and butter go with almost anything. One of my favorite ways to use this garlic herb butter is to toss it with linguine or use it as a garlic butter dipping sauce for pizza crust but you can also use it with:

• crab legs
• lobster tails
• kebab
• steak
• beef burgers
• chicken
• vegetables
• fish
• shrimp

Just in case you have leftovers.

• Storing: Store in a jar or airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.
• Freezing: Feel free to double or triple the recipe and freeze for up to 3 months. Allow the garlic butter sauce to cool and transfer it to a large freezer-safe Ziploc bag. Seal the Ziploc bag and place it flat in the freezer so that it freezes in an even layer. To use, simply cut or break off as much as you need, and place the rest back in the freezer.
• Reheating: Reheat garlic butter by setting it out at room temperature if you want to use it as a spread, or put the desired amount in a small saucepan and reheat over medium-low heat on the stovetop until the sauce is melted and warmed through. You can also reheat it in the microwave although I don’t recommend this method as it will warm the butter too quickly and likely cause it to explode all over the in the microwave.

Easy pasta recipes for your eating pleasure.