This easy mushroom pasta with garlic sauce is sure to be a hit. Creamy garlic parmesan sauce and sautéed mushrooms make this a filling and delicious weeknight recipe.
This pasta with garlic sauce is sooooo yummy.
Longtime Life As A Strawberry readers (hiiiiii, I heart you!) might actually recognize this as one of the OG LAAS recipes from back in the day.
This easy mushroom pasta with garlic sauce was first posted just five months into the life of this website, back when I had no idea what I was doing (still don't, let's be real) and no inkling that this delightful little corner of the internet would someday be a major piece of my full-time self-employed life.
Ahhhhh, memories.
I'm bringing this sauce back today because 1) it is BONKERS EASY and 2) it is BONKERS DELICIOUS and 3) the old pictures were BONKERS TERRIBLE so I gave them a lil' facelift.
I serve this creamy mushroom garlic sauce over a pile of spaghetti, but it's also tasty with chicken, pizza, or any other place you might use a simple white sauce.
It's also FAST, which means YAY, because we all have better things to do than stand over the stove all day, right?
📖 Recipe
Creamy Mushroom Pasta with Garlic Sauce
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: Serves 4-6 1x
- Category: Pasta
- Cuisine: Italian-American
Description
A quick and easy mushroom pasta with garlic sauce.
Ingredients
- ¾ lb. - 1 lb. spaghetti (see recipe notes)
- 2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
- 8 oz. baby portobello mushrooms, sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 large green onions, chopped
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 Tbsp. flour
- 1.5 cups milk
- ⅔ cup shredded parmesan cheese
- ¼ cup fresh parsley, chopped, plus extra for garnish
Instructions
- Cook pasta in very salty water according to recipe or package directions. Make the sauce while the pasta cooks.
- In a large saucepan, heat olive oil over medium heat.
- Add mushrooms to oil and sauté until mushrooms have reduced in size, about 4 minutes. If the mushrooms soak up all the olive oil, add another teaspoon.
- Add garlic, green onions, salt and pepper to mushrooms and stir to combine. Cook until garlic is fragrant and mushrooms have released some additional liquid, about one minute.
- Add flour to saucepan and stir to incorporate all ingredients. Let cook for 30 seconds or so.
- Add ½ cup of the milk and stir to break up any lumps of the mushroom and flour mixture. The milk will thicken fairly quickly; that’s okay. Add the remainder of the milk and stir to incorporate all ingredients.
- Bring sauce to a simmer and cook until milk has thickened, about 5 minutes.
- Remove sauce from heat and stir in parmesan cheese. If you can, shred your own cheese – pre-shredded cheese has additives in it that make it more difficult for the cheese to melt smoothly. Stir in the chopped parsley.
- Garnish with extra parsley and serve immediately.
Notes
If you're serving this recipe over pasta, use ¾ lb. pasta if you like things a little saucier, or use up to 1 lb. pasta for a lighter coating of sauce. You can also lighten the pasta version of this dish up by using zucchini noodles in place of pasta!
If you are a strict vegetarian (or if you're cooking for one!) make this dish vegetarian by using a vegetarian (rennet-free) parmesan cheese.
Use shallots or white onions in place of the green onions for a stronger taste.
Add chicken, shrimp, salmon, or sausage to this pasta for additional protein.
Add any veggies you have on hand to make this a little heartier! I like peas, broccoli, asparagus, bell peppers, spinach, and arugula as mix-ins.
I serve this sauce over pasta, but it's also good as pizza sauce or atop grilled chicken.
Give this sauce a healthy twist by swapping our favorite Magic Cauliflower Cream for the flour and milk in this recipe!
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 6 servings
- Calories: 420
- Sugar: 7.4 g
- Sodium: 201.7 mg
- Fat: 8.5 g
- Carbohydrates: 68.3 g
- Protein: 18.1 g
- Cholesterol: 7.6 mg
Simmi
Thanks Jessie.
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. We are vegan so I replaced milk with almond milk and skipped the cheese part. Also, used wholewheat flour instead of plain flour. Turned out really nice. My 5 year old loved it.
Jessie
I'm so happy you liked it, Simmi! Thanks for letting me know how it turned out!
Anne
So easy and yummy. Love the mushrooms and parsley together. I used shallots and sautéed it all in butter and olive oil and used Hal & half instead of milk. Served it on top of farfalle (bow tie) pasta. Thank you.
Anne
I was trying to give you five stars now the review above! Must have messed up as only three are showing up. Loved that recipe. XO
Jessie
Thanks, Anne! 🙂
Jessie
So happy you liked it, Anne! Thanks for letting me know how it turned out!
Angie
Do you think heavy cream would be good instead of milk?
Jessie
Heavy cream will make the sauce considerably richer, and it will also thicken a bit more (but you can adjust the flour to counteract this). If that's your style, go for it!
Ct
Hi so what milk will need to be use?
Alex
Sounds good. Can I make the sauce ahead of time, and reheat to put over pasta? Or does it curdle?
Jessie
You can definitely make it ahead of time - it doesn't separate too much on reheating (if it starts to come apart at all, just stir in a splash of milk to bring it back together).
Ammu
Superb...i made it...thankyou jessie...
Pat
Made this for dinner tonight. The whole family loved it. I added
spinach and sweet onion along with the green onion and also
added chicken. Added more milk so that it would go farther as
all were very hungry. It was delicious and will be making it again.
Thank you for sharing.
Jessie
I'm so happy you liked it, Pat! I LOVE the spinach and onion additions. Thanks for letting me know how it turned out!
Mav
We love it. Thank you.
Christine
This looks delicious!
Does the carb count include the pasta?
Jessie
It does!
NONAME
Used cheddar instead of parm and it still came out rlly rlly good
Jessie
I'm so glad you liked it!
Adam
Just cooked this for the family loved every bite.
Only thing i would change its a little more milk to thin the sauce but otherwise spot on thanx 👍🏻
Jessie
So happy you liked it, Adam!
Brittney T.
Two thumbs up from the whole family, including my 4 year old! I did substitute penne pasta as my kiddos love to get spaghetti everywhere. Also added real butter & topped w fresh leeks from our garden. This was amazing & I plan on checking out more of your recipes soon!
Jessie
I'm so happy you guys liked it! I love the idea of adding leeks - yum. Thanks for letting me know how it turned out!
Iulia
Hi,
Question: if you use this sauce for pizza, what other thing you put on it?
Thanks
Jessie
If I use this sauce as a base for pizza, I usually use toppings like mozzarella cheese, spinach or arugula, maybe some grilled chicken or sausage, and any veggies I have on hand. Hope that helps!
Kristen
Made this tonight for dinner! It was delicious!!! Thanks so much!
Jessie
I'm so happy you liked it, Kristen! Thanks for letting me know how it turned out!
Kacey
Parmesan cheese isn't vegiterian! it has rennet in it.
Jessie
EU parmigiano reggiano does include rennet, yes. Strict vegetarians can opt for non-imported options like this one from BelGioioso. Hope that helps!
Valerie
Is there any difference if change the milk to heavy cream?
Jessie
The sauce will be much thicker and richer if you use heavy cream, so you may have to make other adjustments to the recipe (like less roux, a shorter cook time, or additional liquid) if you choose to make that substitution in order to achieve the same consistency.
AT
Great recipe! This will be added to the dinner rotation. We added some leftover rotisserie chicken at the end and subbed in some shredded "tasty" cheese for the parmesan.
Jessie
I'm so glad you liked it! Thanks for letting me know how it turned out! 🙂