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.
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!
I know this is an older comment, but in case anyone is reading I never use pre-grated parmesan!
It just doesn’t melt properly for some reason. If you grate finely from a block, it melts beautifully. Hope this helps! xx
oh my, I loved this so much!
fabulous tasty easy recipe!
Amazing. We’re travelling on Tassie & I got a box of fancy mushrooms & 8;cloves of local organic garlic, paired with my hand made fettuccini. Tossed some local freeze dried truffle after taking it off the heat & then drizzled with amazing local truffle oil. Can’t beat that!
And I made the almond coconut lemon cake for afters 😋
Nagi, I cooked this mushroom pasta dish tonight and I have to say it is the absolute best we’ve ever eaten..hubby said if he was served it in a restaurant he would not be disappointed…truly a stunning dish and so easy
Oh! How lucky I am to find this amazing recipe! I was craving something cozy and this hit the spot. I used brown rice pasta to try to keep things a tiny bit healthier. Love this recipe! The butter is a must in my opinion.
Thanks Nagi! Using Olive oil was great idea! I didn’t need to use lots of butter. It turned out moisture, juicy mushrooms! You can check my Youtube short. http://www.youtube.com/@julialala16 Thanks again !
I didn’t think this was going to be as tasty as it is! I did add in one chicken thigh that was hanging out in the fridge (I don’t know what I was thinking either), and my pasta was a mix of ends of boxes. Terrific dinner!
Sorry, I forgot to give the 5 star rating ❤️
Yessss! I am a mushroom fanatic especially mushroom
Cooked in butter and garlic. Just made this and it’s a 10/10 for me! So easy, I was suprised how tasty it was! Followed method exact and it turned out delicious!
Made this for my sceptical, meat loving bf. It was a big hit and will go into regular rotation!
Made this mid week for a group of girls for lunch, another awesome recipe so easy and full of taste, thank you again for making me look like a star in the kitchen xx
This is as good as any fungi pasta I’ve had at good Italian restaurants. I added a dash of truffle oil and it was fantastic!
This recipe turned out brilliantly! It was very tasty, I’ll definitely be making it again in the future. I added in a bit of broccoli that I had cooked before hand since I didn’t have quite enough mushrooms, and the broccoli florets held on to the buttery glaze beautifully.
Pasta was a hit! highly recommend 🙂
The garlic infused mushrooms are absolutely delicious. I now make this recipe weekly as it’s in my opinion, restaurant quality 😋 👌 🙌
I loved this – and I am a pasta tragic!
Had this tonight, another one of your delicious recipes. X
Cooo… that was rather yummy! I did replace half the mushrooms with leeks because we had leeks that needed using. That’s another easy and satisfying mid-week meal for the list. Hubby highly approves. Thank you 🙂