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.
Suzanne Fox says
Lemon rind would be a beautiful addition as well!!
Alisa says
Absolutely delicious Nagi
Natalie Leong says
Simply delicious! Perfect for a weeknight dinner 😍
Amy says
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.
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.
Tamara says
Hi Nagi, can you add some mushrooms in this recipe?
Nagi says
Hi Tamara, I’m unsure what you mean, this recipe is Mushroom Pasta – there’s definitely mushrooms in it! 😂 N x
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
David Lloyd (Christchurch NZ) says
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.
Jill says
Love, love, loved this. So easy and tasty! Thank-you!!
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!!
Dorothy Brace says
As always Nagi, brilliant recipe and will be a favourite in future. Thanks..
Ruth says
Easiest, tastiest spaghetti dish ever! Love your recipes Nagi…love Dozer too…thank you!
Jane says
Best spagetti recipe ever. Delicious!
Thanks Nagi. You are brilliant.
Natalie says
I made this a few weeks ago, exactly as written, and my husband and I swooned! And I’m Italian! I’ve sent this recipe to a few friends already, and am making it again tonight. The tip to withhold some butter at the beginning and add a knob of butter at the end is one I will use whenever I cook mushrooms for other recipes now. This is an outstanding and easy recipe for mushroom lovers. Thank you!
Christine says
OMG! Nagi your recipes never disappoint.
Our favourite Italian Restaurant closed down and I have been craving pasta badly! I made this just now for a late lunch, it came together so quickly. Very tasty and comforting.
Will make again.
Jane says
Wow! This was awesome.
Can’t wait to make it again!
Thanks Nagi.
Keep up the good work.
Really appreciate all the time and careful attention that go into sharing your recipes. Like having a chef/friend right there beside us in the kitchen.
Sharon says
My husband was horrified that his pasta contained only mushrooms …. Until I said it was a recipe tin eats ” oh ok, it’ll be good then!” Think you have a another convert in our house 😄
Katie says
I would not change a thing here. I can’t believe how delicious this dish is for something so simple!!
Corrine says
Divine!
Looked in the fridge and found mushrooms that needed using. Came straight to this site to look up the mushroom ramen noodle recipe and saw this instead. I usually make my mushroom pasta with cream but loved this no cream version. So delish!
colette underwood says
So tasty! My BF loved this and it was great as he does not like creamy based pasta dishes and I get bored of making the tomato ones. This tastes creamy with no cream. Win. Win! Adding this to our roation. Thank you for all your efforts in creating this blog. Keep up the great work.
Aiman Arif says
I made this today and it was yummy!!!