We love this mushroom pasta recipe made with the most delicious garlic butter mushrooms. This easy pasta dish comes together in under 30 minutes!
We’ve shared many mushroom recipes over the years, and now I’m finally sharing our absolute favorite: a mushroom pasta with pappardelle, perfectly cooked garlicky mushrooms, and a creamy butter sauce made without cream.
We make this easy recipe on busy weeknights but also love serving it to friends when they come for dinner. Honestly, this might be one of our favorite ways to eat mushrooms.
Key Ingredients
- Pasta: I love pappardelle, but fettuccine, linguine, or even short pasta shapes like campanelle work really well.
- Mushrooms: You can use any mushroom for this recipe. In our photos, we used cremini and shiitake mushrooms. Foraged mushrooms like morels or chanterelles would be great to use in this recipe. It would be fantastic! (If you do, can you invite us over for dinner, too?)
- Olive oil and butter: I cook my mushrooms in olive oil and then finish them with butter to make a silky butter sauce. For more of a cream sauce, see this pasta primavera.
- Garlic, thyme, and lemon: I add minced garlic, fresh thyme leaves, and lemon zest to the mushrooms when they are cooking. So delicious!
- Mushroom powder: This is optional, but mushroom powder adds an extra pop of umami-packed, savory mushroom flavor. We have a recipe for homemade mushroom powder or you can find it online or in some specialty grocery stores.
- Parmesan cheese: To make the sauce, I toss the cooked pasta with the buttery mushrooms, some pasta water, and parmesan cheese. Then I serve it with extra cheese sprinkled on top.
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
Tips for Making Our Favorite Mushroom Pasta
Tip 1: Don’t crowd your mushrooms. We want flavorful mushrooms with golden brown edges. We use the same cooking method for the mushrooms as our easy garlic butter mushrooms.
You’ll heat the olive oil in a wide skillet, spread out the mushrooms, and then cook without moving them until they begin to brown in spots. Give them a stir, then cook until golden on the other side. Then stir in butter, garlic, thyme, mushroom powder, lemon zest, and salt.
Tip 2: Boil pasta water while cooking mushrooms. We like to boil our pasta water while cooking the mushrooms to speed up the process. When the water is boiling, the mushrooms will be close to done.
Tip 3: Finish in the same pan. When the pasta has finished cooking, we toss it into the pan with the mushrooms and a splash of pasta cooking water. The starchy cooking water helps the garlic and butter in the pan turn into a creamy mushroom sauce. We use the same method of adding pasta water when making fettuccine Alfredo, shrimp carbonara, and even our buttered noodles.
Serving Suggestions
I love this simple pasta with mushrooms on its own, but you can always round out the meal with a light salad. Try our Caesar salad, Greek salad, or homemade salad dressings. You can also add some extra protein with grilled chicken, juicy skillet chicken, garlic shrimp, or poached salmon.
More Easy Pasta Recipes
Easy Garlic Mushroom Pasta
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
I love this easy mushroom pasta. You can use a variety of mushrooms. I often use cremini mushrooms, but for a spectacular pasta, try wild foraged mushrooms like morel or chanterelle mushrooms. There’s no cream in this recipe. If you want to add some, see our tips below the recipe.
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
8 ounces pappardelle, fettuccine or linguine
10 ounces (280g) mushrooms, trimmed and sliced (3 cups sliced)
1 lemon
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 garlic clove, minced
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves or ½ teaspoon dried
1 teaspoon mushroom powder, optional
¼ cup (25g) shredded parmesan cheese, plus more for serving
Salt and fresh ground black pepper
Directions
1Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook, stirring once or twice, for 1 minute less than the suggested cooking time on the package. The pasta will finish cooking in the sauce. Reserve ½ cup of the pasta cooking water.
2Using a damp paper towel, brush off dirt from the mushrooms. Cut away and discard any hard stems. Chop into ¼-inch slices or, if the mushrooms are larger, like portobello, cut into ¼-inch cubes.
3Use a microplane to zest the lemon finely. You need 1 tablespoon.
4Heat the olive oil in a large, wide skillet over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and spread into one layer. Then cook, without moving, until browned on one side, 3 to 5 minutes.
5Stir, and cook another 3 to 5 minutes, or until mostly golden brown on all sides. Stir in butter, garlic, thyme, mushroom powder, lemon zest, and ¼ teaspoon salt.
6Turn the heat to low and add the drained pasta, ¼ cup parmesan, and ¼ cup of the reserved pasta water. Use tongs to toss the pasta, cheese, and mushrooms around the pan for one minute.
7If the pasta looks dry, add a splash more pasta water. I usually use the full ½ cup of pasta water.
8Taste and adjust the seasoning. Squeeze over half a lemon. Serve with parmesan and fresh ground black pepper on top.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Storing: Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. To reheat, add a splash of water or broth to a pan and gently warm the pasta over low heat. If it’s dry, add a bit of butter and finish with parmesan cheese. (I often save a little starchy pasta water in a small container in the fridge for reheating.)
- Make it extra creamy: Stir in 2 tablespoons of cream or creme fraiche before serving.
- Vegan mushroom pasta: Swap the butter for extra olive oil or use plant-based butter. Nutritional yeast is also an excellent substitute for the parmesan cheese.
- Truffle salt: Instead of regular salt, try truffle or porcini salt. It deepens the mushroom flavor and tastes incredible!
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
This is an excellent recipe, adding mushroom powder is a great.dea.
I love mushrooms and will give this recipe a try. Thanks for all your great recipes.
I love your very fresh, very light style of cooking and since I absolutely love pappardelle and mushrooms, I know I’m going to love this recipe as well. My problem seems to be not having the right mincer to get the lemon zest that does make this dish sing. Can you recommend a particular mincer that you like that is easy to use and provides consistent results for you? I’ve tried 2 or 3 of them but haven’t found one I really feel comfortable using. Best regards from Denver. I know this will become a summer time regular in my kitchen.
Thank you! I love my Microplane zester or the pro citrus zester from Deiss.
I made this recipe with gluten free fettuccine and lemon juice instead of zest. I didn’t have mushroom powder or truffle salt. It was still easy to make and very tasty. Will definitely make again.
Glad you liked it 🙂
Great recipe. Heated leftovers with nice cut up sausages.
This recipe looks incredible, and will be making it soon. Suggestions for your favorite commercial mushroom powder?
Many thanks!
I love this recipe, I’ve made it twice, second time I added spinach and chicken!!
It’s YUMMY!!
I made this for a dinner where one of my guests loves pasta and mushrooms. It was a hit with everyone and they loved the addition of black truffle salt. Easy to make and a winner!
Hi, I have been reviewing your recipes for a while now and I find they are simple and delicious. I especially enjoy watching Joanne react to the deliciousness of what she makes. Her thrill of the taste really encourages making the recipe. She is the show !!! I enjoy expression of food. My family tells me to be quiet when I eat something delicious because I always go Mmmm, mmmm.over and again and I can hear Joanne doing that. One reason I chose to follow this blog.
So kind of you, Cecilia! Thank you for sharing.
Just so simple fast and amazing. When I saw how much pasta to use I thought it wasn’t enough. However, the dish wound up more filling then expected. I used linguini but I think next time I’ll try roti I. Might be a little easier to get to spoon than pick and spin.
This was good and even my mushroom-averse husband liked it. I think it needs more lemon and a bit of heat. I’ll make it with lemon thyme, once I get my herb garden started.
Glad you tried it, Edith!
Delicious. I added green peas since I was a bit short on mushrooms. Made my own mushroom powder which will be great to have on hand for other things as well. Who needs cream?
Everything it was promised to be: quick, simple, delicious. Had some fresh parsley so i sprinkled that on top. Def keep mushrooms on hand for this one!
This was amazingly simple and delicious. I added some firm tofu and loved that too.
I made this dish and substituted shallots instead of garlic,( I snuck in a little bit of garlic powder) because my husband cannot tolerate fresh garlic. Could the mushroom sauce be made in advance for dinner party?
Hi Diane, This pasta does actually reheat nicely. I’d make the entire dish, refrigerate, and then reheat slowly in a skillet with a little saved pasta water (just store it in the fridge), and maybe an extra pat of butter.
I made this dish last night and had the leftovers for my lunch today! So delicious! I am going to source mushroom powder and make it again. Cannot imagine it being tastier!!!
Yay! We are so thrilled that you loved it. The garlic powder really does add even more depth of flavor. You are going to love it 🙂
Delicious just finished my bowl nom nom deffo on the chef list will be on the table more. Often thank you
Great and simple.I receive 10 mins ago some mushroom powder from Greece for a steak receipe but saw it was here in a mushroom dish. Is this just to add more mushroom flavour?? Thanks Paul UK PS going to kitchen sounds great .
This is definitely going on my list for this week. Hint to other cooks: the best, fastest way to get perfectly sliced mushrooms is to use an….. egg slicer.
Great tip, Edith!
Delicious
Deeeeeelicious. Thank you.
It was so quick and easy and absolutely delicious!! I’m making this again tomorrow. LOL!
Easy , quick and so tasty , so l was not in the kitchen too long as it’s hot here in Spain and frozen some of it too . Excellent
I cook a lot of pasta, and like to think I don’t need recipes, but I have just made this and thought it was a wonderful way to cook pasta ai funghi. I think the magic ingredient is the lemon. I used wholemeal pasta (I have to, my wife’s a dietitian!) I will certainly do this again.
This is one of my favorite recipes ever. So easy and practical. I usually use around 5 garlic cloves but I do love garlic hehe.
I loved this recipe. My daughter who never ever eats mushrooms had thirds. I did add more garlic than called for and a couple of tablespoons of ricotta cheese to make this extra creamy. My husband who is the only non-vegetarian got chicken on top of his and also loved.
Can’t wait for the next mouth-watering recipes!
Thank you so much for sharing! This is an amazing recipe! Kids will definitely enjoy this and it is so much healthier. This is another way for me to persuade them to eat the healthy type of foods!
What a wonderful recipe and super informative about mushrooms, My favourite tip was to salt mushrooms at the end of cooking.I hear you saying mushrooms are one of the only things you salt towards the end of cooking. I salt scrambled eggs at the end of cooking as this stops them discolouring, Just throwing that out there as another thing that needs salting at the end 😛 Anyways, Wonderful Recipe Have a great week
Your recipes are always inspiring. Simple, delicious, real food that doesn’t take forever to prepare. With all the cooking shows on TV featuring contestants crying, sweating over their “masterpiece” not going as planned…it’s so refreshing to have the both of you help get me back into the kitchen and not feel intimidated!!! Good cooking should be enjoyed by both, in the cooking and eating…no need for ridiculous kitchen “Olympics”!! Thanks