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.
This was surprisingly good and easy! I did add a bag of baby spinach in step 4 and used more garlic. Worked out really well.
Great idea. I will keep that in mind for next time.
Thanks for those tips Theresa!! N x
Nagi, my daughter is dairy intolerant but loves mushroom, is there a white wine/stock version of this you can recommend?
This dish is easy and tastes absolutely Devine! Thanks Nagi
This was absolutely fabulous. All the richness without the cream. Served it with an arugula and walnut salad. Thanks for your creativity.
I just made this and I’m in heaven, it was delicious! Tasted like a fancy restaurant dish and it was so easy to make! Thank you so much
Prepared as described and it was delicious. Almost magical given the rather modest list of ingredients! Surpassed all my expectations. Will go into the “rotation” for sure.
Nagi, this is delicious! The first few times I made it, it was perfect. Today, it was still delicious, but the cheese became clumped & chewy. Do you know what I may have done wrong? I used all the same ingredients that I used previously when it turned out without clumps.
Thank you!
I had the same problem. Is it because there is not enough liquid in it? or because it’s not hot enough?
I don’t know what happened to cause it.
Hi Annie – was it the same brand of parmesan? Grated in the same method? N x
Thanks for the reply Nagi! It was a different brand (coles own) but I grated it the same way.
I hope the book is going well! Can’t wait until it’s published x
Delicious as ever! A couple of tweaks I made in case anyone finds them useful:
– truffle oil if you have some is gorg on this
– I dry fried the mushrooms, then added the butter, in the hope every tiny bit got absorbed into the mushrooms
I made this yesterday and added chopped up kranskis to it. yum. I love your recipes.
Forgot to add that I used spirals instead of the spaghetti.
I bought the low carb high protein ones. Turned out great
Delicious flavours, using wholemeal fettuccine and Swiss browns from today’s Sunday markets. I followed the recipe except for an extra clove of garlic and 2 finely sliced spring onions when I added the garlic. We will be having this as a regular.
Absolutely delicious!
I did want to note that the recipe doesn’t state what temperature to cook the mushrooms with, I just assumed high heat and it came out great!
Delicious! Have made this twice and it’s going to be a regular in our house going forward. Perfection!
Hi Nagi, I love all of your recipes! This sounds delicious. I plan to make it tonight. I’m thinking about adding white wine to the sautéed mushrooms. Do you think that would would work? Thanks!
Hi Nagi, I made this tonight and it’s another favourite from your recipes. First impressions are not always correct this simple recipe is only short on ingredients not on taste. Thanks again your recipes never disappoint.🌸🌸
Cooked this last night. Super easy. Super tasty. Another winner!
Hi Nagi somehow I always end up in your site. I love your recipes and use them A LOT.you are very gifted,and you cover a lot of variation of recipes. Thankyou
Nagi, Another new fan of yours. Will try mushroom dish soon. Have learned something that may interest you: merely saute mushroom alone, solo, no butter, no oil, just their lonesome selves! Thanks again for the recipes!
First time commenting, long time admirer
The mushies were delectable!
Give dozer a pat for Miss Mac
Thanks so much Miss Mac!! ❤️ N x
Hi Ms. Nagi, from Texas. Making tomorrow for a Lenten meal. Using the 5 servings equivalent. I’d like to try the cream you mentioned as I have on hand. About how much would you suggest for the 5 servings? Which do you prefer: with or without? Your splash is probably smaller than my splash! Can’t wait to try this! All your recipes look fantastic. I just recently stumbled upon your site and look forward to trying all your creations.
Thank you for the recipe, it’s very easy to make and very tasty! It’s so good, hubby told me to cook this weekly! 🙂
Nagi, I made this tonight and it was, as usual with all the recipes of yours I have tried, a resounding success! Thank you so much! My confidence in my cooking skills has increased because you are always so upbeat and encouraging.
This recipe was delicious and east! Will definitely be making again. Thanks, Nagi!