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Mushroom Pasta

By:Nagi
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This is a mushroom pasta that’s nice and juicy, in no way dry and dull even though it’s not made with a tomato or cream sauce like this Creamy Mushroom Pasta. It’s buttery and garlicky, and it’s 6 ingredient magic at its best.

Plus my little trick to make extra buttery mushrooms using LESS butter!

Skillet with spaghetti and mushrooms

Mushroom Pasta

Anyone who has sautéed mushrooms will know that the minute mushrooms hit the skillet, the bottom layer of mushrooms soaks up the oil, leaving the top layer dry.

So I used to think that the best way to sauté mushrooms was with loads and loads of butter or olive oil. As you sauté the mushrooms, they start to leech water, creating moisture. But still! That first layer of mushrooms lucky enough to hit the skillet first stole all the butter, leaving the remaining 80% of mushrooms butter free!

In a bid to even out the butteriness of mushrooms, my solution is to reduce the amount of butter melted in the skillet, add a bit of olive oil (so you can heat the butter more without it burning and get the mushrooms browned faster). Then AFTER the mushrooms are golden (i.e. water leeched so they are no longer butter-sponges), add a small knob of butter.

Boom! A big skillet of mushrooms that look and taste WAY more buttery than if all the butter is melted at the beginning! See??

 

Close up of freshly cooked Mushroom pasta

What you need for mushroom pasta

Here’s what you need for this mushroom pasta. You can use any type of long strand or even short stand pasta you want (like orecchiette, penne, ziti, macaroni). Also, the parmesan is not just for serving. Tossing the pasta with parmesan before serving is a little trick I like to use for an extra flavour boost!

What goes in Mushroom pasta

How to make mushroom spaghetti

Here’s how to make this mushroom pasta:

How to make mushroom pasta

The two key steps here are:

  • Butter added later – Hold back some of the butter until AFTER the mushrooms are golden – for extra buttery mushrooms with less butter!

  • Pasta cooking water – Use some of the pasta cooking water to toss with the spaghetti and mushrooms. The starch in the water will emulsify (thicken) with the butter in the mushrooms, creating a slick juicy transparent “sauce” that clings to the pasta strands. Classic Italian cooking technique used for all pastas.

If you do this key step of tossing the pasta with some of the pasta cooking water, people will think you’ve made a mushroom pasta sauce. That’s how juicy and “saucy” it seems!

Mushroom pasta in a bowl, ready to be eaten

Fork twirling mushroom pasta

I know I keep going on and on about how juicy and slick this pasta is! It’s because this is hard to capture in photos and I feel like people see pastas like this one without a large pot of sauce and assume it’s dry and boring. When in actual fact, this is about as far from that as it can be!

If you’d like to add some extra greens into your meal, try this with a classic (super quick) Rocket/Arugula Salad with Balsamic Dressing. Otherwise, a juicy tomato salad, fresh crunchy cucumber salad, or have a browse through my Vegetable Sides and pick something using vegetables you have!

– Nagi x

PS If you want to indulge in a special Italian pasta meal, add a side of Garlic Bread or Cheesy Garlic Bread, and finish with Tiramisu. Sheer perfection!

Watch how to make it

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Mushroom Pasta

Author: Nagi | RecipeTin Eats
Prep: 10 mins
Cook: 15 mins
Total: 20 mins
Pasta
Italian
4.96 from 68 votes
Servings2 -3
Tap or hover to scale
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Recipe video above. An incredible way to use mushrooms in a meal - in a mushroom pasta! The tastiness of this pasta lies in the mushrooms you use because it's all about the mushrooms. This pasta is made the proper Italian way so even though it's only made with 6 ingredients, it's saucy and juicy and so incredibly tasty!

Ingredients

CHOOSE pasta

  • 200g / 7 oz short pasta like orecchiette, penne, macaroni (Note 1)
  • 160g/6 oz long pasta - spaghetti, fettucine (Note 1)

Garlic Butter Mushrooms for pasta

  • 400g / 14 oz mushrooms , sliced 1/2 cm / 1/5" thick (Note 2)
  • 50g / 3 tbsp unsalted butter , separated
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 garlic cloves , finely minced
  • 1/2 tsp each salt and pepper
  • 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese (or 1/4 cup store bought grated)

To serve

  • Parsley , finely chopped
  • Parmesan cheese , grated

Instructions

Pasta

  • Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil. Add the pasta into the pot when you start cooking the mushrooms.
  • Cook pasta per packet instructions minus 1 minute. RESERVE 1 mugful of pasta cooking liquid, then drain pasta.

Mushrooms

  • Melt half butter and all oil in a large skillet over heat.
  • Add mushrooms and cook until water has leeched then evaporated, and the mushrooms start to turn golden around edges - around 5 minutes.
  • Halfway through cooking, add salt & pepper.
  • Add garlic and remaining butter, cook for 2 minutes until mushrooms and garlic are golden.
  • Add pasta, about 3/4 cup of reserved pasta water and parmesan. Toss gently or until water reduces and thickens into a saucy glaze that coats the pasta. If the pasta dries out, add more pasta water.
  • Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed.
  • Remove from stove and serve immediately, garnished with fresh parsley and parmesan cheese.

Recipe Notes:

1. Pasta - you need slightly more if using short pasta for equivalent serving size. Pictured in post: spaghetti and orecchiette.
Orecchiette are shaped like mini bowls and are sold at all major supermarkets in Australia, same price as more common pastas. I like using them for mushroom pasta because I like to scoop up the pasta with the mushrooms - also fabulous with this Sausage Pasta in creamy tomato sauce.
2. Mushrooms - any slicable type fine here. Fabulous with plain button mushrooms, extra good with Swiss Brown/Cremini.
3. Variations: Thyme also goes really well with this pasta because mushrooms + thyme = best mates. Sometimes I will add a splash of cream to the mushrooms, but it's not a make or break, just a "nice to have when you're feeling indulgent".
4. Butter - I provide a range for butter quantities because - well, the more the better. But the minimum is 2 tbsp of butter + 1 tbsp olive oil, otherwise the pasta starts to get dry. No need to measure accurately, just eye ball it!
5. Reheating - Pasta always dries out when refrigerated overnight. For the best reheating option, reserve about 1/4 cup of pasta cooking water. Sprinkle cold pasta with 2 tbsp, then microwave reheat, toss well. Resurrected to near perfect juiciness!
6. Nutrition per serving, assuming 2 (generous!) servings.

Nutrition Information:

Serving: 352gCalories: 583cal (29%)Carbohydrates: 64.9g (22%)Protein: 25.5g (51%)Fat: 26.7g (41%)Saturated Fat: 12.2g (76%)Cholesterol: 121mg (40%)Sodium: 352mg (15%)Potassium: 791mg (23%)Fiber: 2.4g (10%)Sugar: 4.2g (5%)Vitamin A: 600IU (12%)Vitamin C: 10.7mg (13%)Calcium: 230mg (23%)Iron: 8.5mg (47%)
Keywords: mushroom pasta, Mushroom Recipe, mushroom spaghetti
Did you make this recipe?I love hearing how you went with my recipes! Tag me on Instagram at @RecipeTinEats.

Originally published October 2016. Updated with sparking new photos and video! 

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LIFE OF DOZER

I have a 4WD car. It’s pretty big. Dozer is bigger. 😂

Dozer head touching roof of car

And from the original publication date:

There is no such thing as a peaceful lunch in this household. Always eyes on you.

mushroom-pasta-7

A spectacular way to use mushrooms - in this tasty, juicy Mushroom pasta made the classic Italian way. 15 minute dinner! www.recipetineats.com

Hi, I'm Nagi!

I believe you can make great food with everyday ingredients even if you’re short on time and cost conscious. You just need to cook clever and get creative!

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175 Comments

  2. Cindy says

    Yum! Just loved the simplicity of this recipe along with the delicious flavours, I added some Thyme as suggested. Your my go to recipe box Nagi. 🙏

    Reply

  3. Rebecca says

    5 stars
    Made myself a generous serving for one of this amazing recipe tonight and it was so so good!! I think my family might have enjoyed it, but I didn’t want to waste my delicious mushrooms on them! I’ll do it again whenever I need a quick meal, this is total comfort food for me!

    Reply

  4. S. Ervin says

    I think this is the first time that I have ever left a comment for a recipe that I’ve found online, BUT…it’s necessary. I made this last night for my mom who is a VERY picky eater. She LOVED it! I added asparagus and used pecorino romano (because that’s what I had on hand) and it turned out great. Her only mini-complaint was that she wished there was a bit more “sauce”, which is always a struggle because I don’t like “saucy” anything! The tip about the super-hot pan for the mushrooms is a great one, and subbing olive oil (butter infused) for butter worked out wonderfully as well. I’ll definitely be checking out more of your recipes. YAY!

    Reply

  5. Christine Brown says

    5 stars
    Made this tonight for the first time. Absolutely delicious. I had packs of cheap mushrooms to use up and because of the method, they were AMAZING. The only thing I’d do differently is add even more mushrooms. We love mushrooms. So simple too. I’ll definitely be cooking this again and recommending it to friends.

    Reply

  7. LisaR says

    5 stars
    Love this healthier version of mushrooms and pasta without the cream. Very tasty and quickly comes together. Will be making this again.

    Reply

  11. Amy says

    5 stars
    I can see myself making this one again. It was absolutely delicious and so was the cheesy garlic bread that I served with it. Thank you Nagi. Your recipes are all winners.

    Reply

  12. Maya says

    some ppl soak mushrooms in salt and water prior to sautéing, do you do this? They say it gets the bitter taste out.

    Reply

  14. Kristy says

    Hi Nagi!

    Your recipes are always divine, but I thought I should just let you know Parmesan cheese isn’t vegetarian due to the animal rennet 🙁 But thank you for all your gorgeous recipes, they are easy to make vegetarian when omitting the Parmesan!

    Kristy

    Reply

  15. David Lloyd (Christchurch NZ) says

    5 stars
    I made this tonight. YUM…. it’s so good. The sauce was tasty and stuck to pasta. Mushrooms, garlic and parmesan great match. Thank you Nagi for another winning recipe.

    Reply

  17. Atieh says

    best easy recipe ever!! thank you so much,, I was alone at home and didn’t know what to make and this was just perfect and so easy and DELISHIOUS!!

    Reply
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