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!
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??
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!
How to make mushroom spaghetti
Here’s how to make this 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!
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
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:
Nutrition Information:
Originally published October 2016. Updated with sparking new photos and video!
🍄MUSHROOM LOVE 🍄
LIFE OF DOZER
I have a 4WD car. It’s pretty big. Dozer is bigger. 😂
And from the original publication date:
There is no such thing as a peaceful lunch in this household. Always eyes on you.
Made this today and everyone loved it, thank you so much Nagi for another great recipe!! Luckily I managed to make extra for lunch at work tomorrow 🙂
Love your amazing blog!
God bless,
Chitra x
Ps have made your apple cake three times now, and each time it is just so delicious!
Terrific to hear Chitra! Thanks for letting me know you enjoyed it – N x
Hi Nagi, I tried making this recipe and unfortunately it didn’t work out – the Parmesan stuck together and got all clumpy and the pasta water made it really gluggy. What did I do wrong?!
Hi Belinda, I’m so sorry to hear that, I wish I could have been there to help troubleshoot. Did you use freshly grated parmesan?? 🙂 N xx
This was absolutely delicious. I will undoubtedly be making this again and again.
Hi Nagi, what a delicious recipe you’ve got!What I really like about this one in particular is the color and the portions that you served – they are perfect! Fantastic work!
That’s terrific to hear Elaine! So glad you enjoyed this, thank you for letting me know! N x
What is the recipe for the stuffed mushrooms u were talking about with spinich and ricatta?
I am into sports. I was looking to make my pasta tastes better. Going to try this one today. But I am going to cut on butter. And use olive oil or coconut oil. Please share some more pasta recipes with us. We can’t have enough of your delicious yet healthy recipes.
Salute.
I hope you love this!!! It’s fine to cut down on butter if you want to – sub with olive oil!
It is possible to cut down on the butter?
Hi Michelle! Would you sub with olive oil? 🙂 N x
To make the mushroom flavor really stand out, buy a small package of dried porcini mushrooms and rehydrate them in boiling water. Remove the rehydrated mushrooms and add them to the others you chopped, and reduce the mushroom stock to 1/4 cup. Add the reduced stock and optionally a Tbsp or two of white wine between steps 5 & 6 and reduce further until almost dry.
I was looking for a non-creamy recipe for pasta, (hubby doesn’t like creamy) and this is amazing!
Tastes so good, can’t wait for him try it! Thank you for an amazing recipe =)
That’s fantastic to hear Saleha! Thanks for leaving a review! N x ❤️
I happily stumbled across you while searching for a quick & easy recipe after a busy Monday at work.
I am trying to lower my carbs but could not resist the description & ingredients. I added some fresh spinach, arugula & crushed red pepper but other than that followed the recipe. Wow! Deliciousness! I will make this again! Thank you & nice to meet you, Nagi! 🙂
Susan
Lovely to meet you too Susan! So pleased you enjoyed this one, it is one of my favourite mushroom recipes 🙂 N xx
I don’t eat pasta much anymore these days (those calories can get out of hand SO FAST!) but I made this tonight and it was a delicious change of pace! I added some crispy bacon at the end and took your suggestion to add some thyme. Great recipe all around, though I could have used more mushroom in mine (I didn’t realize how many I needed for this recipe, so I cut the pasta back a bit too). The pasta water I was always skeptical about but it worked very nicely in the dish, and topped with some flake salt it was excellent. I bet you could add some capers in here too, come to think of it. Anyway – great recipe and I’m glad I found it. It’ll be on repeat and that’s a rarity in my house! Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it Christina, thanks for letting me know! N xx
So pleased to have found you . Really enjoying your humour alongside the recipes ,& Dozer’s input .
Have just tried your pasta /mushroom recipe & appreciate the recommendation of including pasta water…I never somehow took on board Jamie’s same tip but really makes a difference ! However , I found the ratio pasta / mushroom to be in reverse for us ….halving the pasta recommended & doubling the mushroom content ! So just down to personal taste , I suppose . I know the Italians love their pasta as bulk of the plate but I love the
Hi Nagi .. So pleased to have found your site .Enjoying your humour & way of showing recipes .Also following Dozer . I have tried several & am particularly pleased with ice creams .
I’ve just tried Mushrooom/ Pasta recipe & found your recommendation for using reserved pasta water to be advantageous ( never tried it when following Jamie Oliver ).
However , I needed to alter ratio of pasta/mushrooms drastically (prob just to suit our palate ?).
I doubled recommended mushrooms & also reduced pasta by 1/3 , which seemed to render a 50/50 concoction . The Italians would probably be horrified ??
I love that you doubled the mushrooms! 🙂 Of coarse Italians would not be horrified – they would probably applaud you! 😉 N xx
I loved this! I didn’t even add any salt and pepper. I did add some smoked oysters to my bowl though, for some protein.
That’s fantastic to hear Beck! Thanks for letting me know! N xx
Hi Nagi! Thank you for this awesome recipe, I just made it for dinner this evening and it was soooooooooooo yummylicious ? Will definitely be preparing this again and again !
Glad to hear you enjoyed it Peggy, thanks for letting me know! N xx
Made this for supper tonight, and it turned out great! This recipe is a keeper!
Fantastic! So glad to hear you enjoyed it Mrs D, thanks so much for trying my recipe! N x
Hi Nagi,
l tried this recipe last night and it was the bomb!!! It looked and tasted like real Italian pasta woohoo So yummy. Had a few white mushrooms and romanao cheese that I wanted to use up. Typed quick light meal recipes into your search and chose this one because it suited the ingredients I had. It looked simple quick and do-able for me. I Have always been very wary about cooking pasta because could never get it right. Using the pasta water and combination of butter and oil worked awesum. Can’t wait to try brown mushrooms I agree they are a lot tastier. I grew up gathering wild mushrooms when in season and they taste soooooo much better than the cultivated ones I have tried from the shops.
I have never been a cook and and in fact hated it. Inviting anyone for a meal or having to take something for a shared meal just terrifies me for that reason. I try as much as I can not to cook and if I do, mostly stick to very simple plain boring fare or buy . I am absolutely thankful I stumbled on to your page a couple of months ago and have been secretly trying your recipes. While I have a long way to go your blog has helped me start to get over my fears and I am beginning to enjoy cooking. Most of my issues are around multitasking and timing but it is getting better and last nights success certainly makes me more confident.
I find your notes and tips extremely important because for someone who hasn’t got a clue. A simple thing like not over crowding your dish and why and the substitute ingredients that can be used increases your understanding and confidence. I enjoy your humour and ability to make cooking look easy and doable and feel like you are right there in the room.
Thank you Nagi
Wow what a message! Thank you so much for trying my recipes and I’m glad you enjoyed this and find my tips/notes helpful! 🙂 N xx
I made this last night as a quick and easy dinner for watching the last game of the Series. Turned out great! I love the way the starchy water makes a creamy sauce without adding extra calories. I used a mix of button and crimini mushrooms and added a small amount of dried thyme as a flavor boost. My husband loved it. This is the third recipe of yours I’ve tried – looking forward to many more!
I’m so glad Cheryl! Thank you for taking the time to come back and let me know – N x
I have to confess to using button mushrooms , but then I don’t like too strong a flavour. I just wanted to say…… AWESOME! Absolutely loved it. Hubby took left overs for lunch and said was amazing reheated too!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it Nicole, thank you for letting me know! N x
Forgot the stars.
I cannot believe I’ve been dumping the pasta water all these years!!! Love simple recipes that are amazingly delicious!! Thanks again Nani! After reading the other posts I now want to grow my mushrooms.
Lol oh jeez.
Know you know!! 🙂 The pasta water is gold, do that step for every single pasta recipe. I swear. Every recipe on my site has that step – whether it’s bolognese, ragu or a creamy pasta. The Italians know best!
Nagi I always cook mushrooms on the very highest temperature. It works great! I drop them into a really hot pan!
That’s a great tip Maureen, I have to try that! I haven’t heated oil to stinking hot for mushrooms. 🙂 I know butter doesn’t work because it browns too quickly but oil is a good tip! N xx
Hi Nagi!
I’ve been a fan of your website for a while now and everything I’ve made from it has been amazingly good… including this!
I made it last night after a big storm whipped through Brisbane and took out our power for a couple of hours. I had already bought the ingredients so I did all the cooking on my camp stove and with a head torch for light. Best home/camping dinner ever 🙂
My wife and I are on a bit of a health kick at the moment and are mostly doing this through portion control. We found that we were really satisfied with a quarter of the total serving which means we’ve both got lunch sorted for today. It worked out to be about 350 calories each too which was great.
Keep up the great work!
Cheers
Scott
Sorry to hear the power was out but super impressed you made this with camping gear!!! I was just camping on the weekend actually – I love sleeping on dirt and cooking on the ground. So glad you enjoyed it – and impressed you are being so good with portion control! N x