This easy, delicious Creamy Mushroom Spaghetti recipe is sautéed mushrooms & pasta in a garlic cream sauce that’s a perfect weeknight dinner!
Looking for a delicious, filling dish the whole family can agree on? Look no further than this comforting, Creamy Mushroom Spaghetti. This delectable dish is sure to get your family’s seal of approval. We’re talking sautéed mushrooms with plenty of garlic & shallots, all smothered in a creamy sauce – plus grated cheese for good measure.
Ready in just 20 minutes, serve this delicious recipe on its own or as a full meal with Homemade Garlic Bread or as a side dish served with Crispy Chicken Cutlets.
Why This Recipe Works
- Sautéed mushrooms add flavor and texture to the dish, providing an earthy base for the creamy sauce.
- Shallots and garlic provide a savory kick that balances out the creaminess of this dish perfectly.
- Adding half-and-half or single cream makes for an incredibly rich and velvety sauce that clings to each strand of pasta beautifully.
- Grated Parmesan cheese adds delicious umami notes while adding depth to every bite!
Ingredient Notes
- Mushrooms: I like cremini mushrooms, but you can use baby Bella, chestnut, white mushrooms, or whatever is your favorite.
- Spaghetti: Use dried pasta or fresh pasta that is just undercooked before adding it to the sauce. I love to serve this sauce with spaghetti, but you can mix it up with any pasta you have on hand, it’s very good with penne.
- Cream: This recipe calls for half and half (or single cream in the UK), thicker cream will work, but it makes a thicker sauce that can be thinned out with extra pasta water.
- Shallots: Shallots give a wonderfully subtle flavor to this dish, but if you don’t have them, you can use finely diced onion in their place.
- Parmesan Cheese: Use freshly grated cheese as it melts beautifully into the sauce. You can also use other Italian hard cheese, such as Pecorino Morano or Gran Padano.
How To Make Creamy Mushroom Pasta
- Cook the pasta.
- Saute the shallots in butter, add mushrooms.
- Add garlic, stir in cream and parsley.
- Simmer. Season with salt and pepper.
- Stir the cooked pasta into the sauce.
- Serve and enjoy!
Step By Step Instructions
Start with cooking the spaghetti until just undercooked. Reserve some pasta water before draining.
While the pasta cooks, sauté the shallots in butter and cook until transparent. Add the garlic and cook another minute.
Add the mushrooms.
Cook until the mushrooms are fully cooked. Stir in the cream, lower the heat and simmer gently until thickened (1-2 minutes). Sprinkle with fresh parsley.
Add the spaghetti and toss with the sauce to coat and add some of the reserved pasta water to loosen the sauce.
Serve hot topped with shredded parmesan.
Erren’s Top Tips
- To clean the mushrooms, use damp paper towels to remove any dirt. Cleaning mushrooms with water cause them to become waterlogged. Mushrooms absorb water like sponges and they won’t brown well when cooked if they are full of water.
- If you want to use water, you can quickly rinse the mushrooms and pat dry with paper towels, but don’t soak them.
- When cooking mushrooms, don’t overcrowd the pan. Cook mushrooms in a pan with a good amount of surface area. You want to be able to spread the mushrooms in a single layer to allow contact with the hot pan and let moisture evaporate quickly so they brown nicely.
- To add an even deeper mushroom flavor, you can add some dried porcini mushrooms (that have been soaked of course) and add a bit of the liquid you use for soaking them. Since I wanted a quick and simple dish, I went for using only fresh mushrooms.
- Swap Out The Mushrooms This recipe would work well with white mushrooms or baby portabellas too.
- For a non-vegetarian meal, add cooked chicken.
- Looking for something spicy? Sprinkle crushed red pepper flakes into the sauce for a creamy southwest spaghetti.
Did you make this?
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Let’s Make Creamy Mushroom Spaghetti
Ingredients
- 1 pound spaghetti
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 cloves garlic chopped
- 3 shallots chopped
- 8 ounces cremini mushrooms cleaned and sliced
- 1½ cups half and half UK – Single Cream
- Freshly grated Parmesan cheese for serving
- A good handful of fresh parsley chopped
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling water until quite al dente (it will finish cooking in the sauce).
- While the pasta is cooking, melt the butter in a large frying pan on medium heat.
- Add the shallots and cook until transparent (about 3-4 minutes). Add the garlic and cook another minute.
- add the mushrooms and sauté until the mushrooms are fully cooked.
- Stir in the cream and parsley, lower the heat, and simmer gently until thickened (1-2 minutes).
- Reserve some of the pasta water and drain the pasta .
- Add the pasta to the sauce and toss to coat, adding the reserved water as needed to loosen the sauce.
- Serve immediately with grated cheese.
Tips + Notes
- To clean the mushrooms, use damp paper towels to remove any dirt. Cleaning mushrooms with water cause them to become waterlogged. Mushrooms absorb water like sponges and won’t brown well when cooked if they are full of water.
- If you want to use water, you can quickly rinse the mushrooms and pat them dry with paper towels, but don’t soak them.
- When cooking mushrooms, don’t overcrowd the pan. Cook mushrooms in a pan with a good amount of surface area. You want to be able to spread the mushrooms in a single layer to allow contact with the hot pan and let moisture evaporate quickly, so they brown nicely.
- To add an even deeper mushroom flavor, add some dried porcini mushrooms (that have been soaked, of course) and add a bit of the liquid you use for soaking them. Since I wanted a quick and simple dish, I used only fresh mushrooms.
Nutrition Information:
Update Notes: This post was originally published on: July 17, 2014, but was republished with new photos and content in 2022.
Laura says
This was so easy to make, I followed this recipe, and it was really delicious!
Erren Hart says
I’m so glad to hear it! Thank you for the kind words and for taking the time to leave a review!
Dini says
Can I add cherry tomatoes? Having a go at it tonight
Erren's Kitchen says
Hi, I can’t see why not, please let me know how it is 🙂
Elena says
I am just about to begin. I realized that instructions differ in the sequence of items to be sauteed. In the essay part, it is shallots-garlic-mushrooms. But in the step by step, the sequence is mushroom-shallots-garlic. Sorry, I am not a good cook and would not want to make a mistake. Please advise.
Thank you.
Erren's Kitchen says
Hi Elena, I’m so sorry, I have corrected the recipe card now. The garlic goes last so that it doesn’t burn. I hope you enjoyed the recipe anyway 🙂
Adam says
Hi, in step 2 in in the photos it still stays to saute the garlic first.
Erren Hart says
Hi Adam, thank so so much for pointing out the error. This post was recently updated and there was clearly an oversight. The recipe will work either way, but I have updated it to reflect the step by step instructions in the article. Thanks gain for letting me know!
Melissa says
Thanks for asking! I am learning, too!