You won’t want to stop eating this mushroom pasta recipe! Its savory buttery flavor comes through with garlic, lemon and Parmesan cheese.
Calling all mushroom lovers! Here’s the meal for you: this Mushroom noodles with garlic butter sauce! It’s creamy and flavorful, harnessing the power of lemon, butter, and parmesan cheese. It makes the most of the intense umami of mushrooms: one of the most potent ingredients in any kitchen. This dish has just the right ratio of mushrooms to pasta, so each bite has a generous hit of flavor. We couldn’t stop scooping bites. In fact, our 4 year old told us he wanted to eat this forever (best compliment).
3 elements to it Mushroom Pasta Recipe
These mushroom pasta combine three elements to make the best mushroom pasta recipe you can find! Here are the main ones:
- Short pasta: Long noodles look pretty, but they can clump together and make it difficult to get mushroom bites. The short haircut is the best choice here. We used casarèce Pasta that has a nice twisted shape. Other options: penne, rigatoni, bow ties, orecchiette and gigli.
- Sauteed Mushrooms: This riff on our sautéed mushrooms delivers maximum flavor! Baby bella or cremini mushrooms taste great, but you can use other types (see below). We also added some breadcrumbs to add texture.
- Garlic Butter Sauce: All you need is olive oil, butter, and garlic to make a killer sauce. Add grated Parmesan at the end and bam! They have an amazingly simple pasta sauce that goes perfectly with these “mushrooms”.
The best varieties of mushrooms for pasta
What are the best mushrooms for pasta? Some of our favorites are the standard strains, but there are many other unique strains to try as well. A mixture of mushrooms makes pasta even more interesting! Here are our top mushroom varieties to pair with pasta:
- Baby bella (cremini): Baby Bella, also known as Cremini Mushrooms, is a younger version of Portobello; They have a hearty, meaty taste and a beautiful shape. They’re one of our top picks for mushroom recipes.
- portobello: You can get super meaty with sliced portobello mushrooms.
- White Mushrooms: Mushrooms are younger versions of Baby Bella; They have a less robust flavor but will work if that’s all you can find.
- Shiitake: Shiitakes are great for blending texture and have a super meaty flavor. Be sure to remove hard chopsticks before use.
- Oyster: Oyster mushrooms also add a nice texture to a mushroom mix.
- Maitake: Maitake or Hen of the Woods mushrooms have a peppery flavor and feathery texture that work well in a blend.
How to cook pasta al dente
The key to this mushroom pasta recipe? Boil the noodles al dente. Al dente means “until the bite” in Italian: it is pasta that is cooked until completely soft but with a firm core. Overcook your pasta and not only will it be tough, it will actually be less nutritious and less filling. Here are some tips for cooking pasta perfectly:
- Check over Before the instructions on the package indicate this. Most pasta packages have timing that results in overcooked pasta. Start tasting the noodles a few minutes before the packaging says so.
- Try often! You want to catch it when there is a little white spot in the heart or when it disappears.
- Move quickly! Pasta can be cooked from al dente to overcooked in seconds.
Variation: Creamy mushroom noodles
Do you like creamy mushroom pasta instead? You can easily make this pasta creamy with our favorite trick: goat cheese! At the end of the recipe, crumble up to 4 ounces of softened goat cheese (chervre). It combines with the butter sauce to form a creamy sauce that coats the pasta perfectly. Instead of the garlic butter sauce, you can also make our creamy white sauce.
Note on serving size
This mushroom pasta recipe is for half a pound of pasta. According to you and your family, that’s about 4 modest servings. But if you have big eaters, you might want to increase the amount of pasta. Or you might just want to make sure you have some savory side dishes to go with it.
We served it with a few side dishes and it served 2 adults and 1 child. But if you’re serving it as a sole vegetarian protein or for teens, you might want to double the recipe and go for 1 pound.
Make It a Meal: Side Dishes for Mushroom Pasta
How do you turn this mushroom pasta recipe into a savory dish? You should find sides loaded with veggies to infuse fiber and vitamins, and sides high in protein to make the meal heartier. Here are a few ideas:
- simple salad such as arugula salad, goat cheese salad with arugula, pomegranate salad, celery salad with apples, simple carrot salad, or apple salad with spinach
- Vegetables like roasted broccoli, grilled lemon asparagus, sautéed green beans, Brussels sprouts with maple glaze, or the ultimate sautéed veggies or sautéed peppers
- beans such as borlotti beans, easy navy beans or easy cannellini beans
This mushroom pasta recipe is…
Vegetarian. For gluten-free pasta, use gluten-free pasta.
The description
This mushroom pasta recipe is hearty, buttery, and creamy in flavor! Mushrooms go perfectly with garlic, lemon and parmesan.
- 8 ounces* short pasta such as penne, rigatoni or casarecce, with the pasta water
- 16 ounces Baby Bella (Cremini) mushrooms (or a mix of other varieties)
- 1/2 small sweet onion or yellow onion
- 4 tablespoons olive oil, shared
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt, shared
- 3 tablespoons salted butter, divided
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons Italian breadcrumbs or panko (optional)
- 4 Garlic cloves
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes (or sliced Fresno pepper)
- ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
- Creamy variant: 3 to 4 ounces crumbled soft goat cheese
- Cook pasta (and save pasta water!): Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook al dente. Set the timer a few minutes less than the package directions say, then taste: the pasta should be just cooked through and still slightly firm. The salt water should also make the pasta taste salty. Drain the pasta, reserving ½ cup of the cooking water (you probably only need a few tablespoons).
- Meanwhile, toss the mushrooms: Clean mushrooms, then cut into slices. Finely chop the onion. In a skillet, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and sauté for 2 minutes. Then add the mushrooms and cook for 2 minutes, stirring often. Add ½ teaspoon Kosher salt and cook 3 to 4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid is cooked through and the mushrooms are tender (taste to gauge doneness). Add 1 tablespoon butter and lemon juice and increase heat to high. Fry for 2 minutes until the edges of the mushrooms are golden brown. Taste and add a few more pinches of salt until the flavor comes out. Stir in Italian breadcrumbs or panko and place the mushrooms in a bowl.
- Prepare the Garlic Butter Sauce: Chop the garlic. In the same skillet, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil and 2 tablespoons butter over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook until fragrant and the garlic is beginning to brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat before the garlic turns brown.
- Surcharge: To the pan with the garlic butter sauce, add the mushrooms, cooked pasta, grated parmesan cheese, remaining ¼ teaspoon kosher salt, and just enough pasta water to soften. or sauce (we used 2-3 tbsp pasta water). Taste again and add a few pinches of salt if you like. If using, stir in crumbled goat cheese at the end until a creamy sauce forms. Enjoy hot.
Remarks
* Double this amount for a larger, fuller pasta plate. Or round off your meal with a vegetable side dish or a salad.
- Category: main course or side dish
- Method: Cook
- Kitchen: pasta
- Diet: vegetarian
Keywords: Mushroom noodles, recipe for mushroom noodles
