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.
A simple to prepare and absolutely delicious meal loved by the family!
good
Loved it. I have your book but this isn’t in it.
Easy and delicious
I have just cooked and tried this the way you recommended and I have to say it is the best mushroom pasta I have eaten and the family enjoyed it thoroughly. Thanks for the tips
this is a winner! so easy and so delicious, much easier on the belly than the creamy variety! x
So simple but SO delicious! We devoured this in minutes tonight and I’m already wanting to make it again!
can I leave 10 stars? I have mushrooms that I never opened but they were tired, I had 1/2 box of old fettucine and after reading the comments I said nothing to lose. I am a single lady and I swear I could have eaten the whole thing in one sitting, forced myself to put half in a container and for about 15 minutes after finishing I was say on my G-d Oh my G-d this was so fantastic. I then read your whole website, signed up and received your free cookbooks. My first recipe from you and certainly not my last! I am a really good cook and at first I thought this recipe was too easy, nope easy yes delicious oh yes, this will be in my repertoire for sure.tuly delicious only change I mad was 3 large garlic cloves and 1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme
DELISH! The only change I made was added pine nuts, absolutely divine. A new regular for us!
Another recipe added to the rotation! At this point, I don’t even look at any other sites or cookbooks. Five stars!
Have tried many of your recipes Nagi, never a failure.
Looking forward to making mushroom pasta this evening.
Dozer is a delight, we have a much loved Labrador (Missy) with a similar temperament, very much part of our family.
Thanks so much for your site.
PS have also purchased your book.
Made this time with fresh mushroom/truffle oil infused pasta from Sunday markets, 2 mins once boiling. Added sliced spring onions again with garlic. Delicious!
I forgot to post stars! Dang!
5+++!
I didn’t have high hopes for dinner last night. I had a costco tub of mushrooms well past their prime…no good for a salad, a small chunk of dried-out parm, and some herbs in the garden. Dried pasta in the pantry…not much else…it was a bleak situation! I had zero energy to shop and almost spent a chunk of change for delivery. Then I found this recipe!! I made a delicious dinner for 4 out of stuff I probably would have put in the compost next trash day. I did have a bundle of fresh asparagus. It sounds crazy, but everyone raved over this dish!! There was plenty for lunch today. It was absolutely delicious and a reminder that fantastic food doesn’t have to cost a lot or be complicated.
I really appreciate you, Nagi!!!!
Wilted in watercress with goats cheese. Best mushrooms I’ve ever cooked. Fantastic.
So, me and my son made this. Really good!
Used 150 g shiitake, 150 g forest mushrooms and ~100 g mushrooms. Turned out so good! Will definitely make again!
Masja from Sweden
From a tiny medieval village in Aveyron district of France. I had brought spaghetti and a jar of dried morels. We added button mushrooms (all that was available). I put the morel soaking liquid in with the pasta cooking water. I sneaked some baby spinach in because hubby won’t otherwise eat veggies. Lots of good parm. Man was this tasty!
Do you think I can add some bacon to this?
Absolutely lovely quick simple very very tasty I added bacon lardons
Such a gr8 easy and healthy meal.
We luv your recipes.
I wanted to try this but honestly thought it would taste bland. How
Wrong was I! Have made it 3 times now and it is just packed full of flavour. Not only that, it is a simple recipe that delivers every time. Can’t ask more than that…
Hi Nagi,
This recipe is amazing but I have one question, why does my Parmesan go gluey and not melt properly into the pasta? I’ve made this twice now and will continue to but would love to know the secret, I am using perfect Italiano grated Parmesan.
Try using a larger size grater. Many recipes call for using a microplane grater, but the result is often clumping when the cheese hits the pasta. I get best results with a regular fine grater where the holes are about the width of a piece of spaghetti.
Could very well be the parmesan you’re using. Only the expensive parmigiano reggiano melts without becoming a mess of sticky glue that sticks to your utensils!