This Brown Butter Mushroom Pasta is total comfort! Brown butter offers warmth and nuttiness to the earthy mushrooms, and it’s all tossed with tender pasta.
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Brown Butter Mushroom Pasta
Brown butter is considered one of the classic French sauces that chefs and home cooks turn to when rich comfort is on the menu. This recipe features this simple yet elegant sauce and is combined with earthy mushrooms and tender pasta. It’s the perfect supper on a chilly winter’s night. Read on to learn more about this delicious dinner!
How To Make Brown Butter Mushroom Pasta
Brown butter is as simple as it sounds: it’s butter that has been browned on the stovetop slowly, which coaxes out nutty flavor. The milk solids in the butter are what brown, while any water in the butter is cooked out. The end result is a golden brown sauce that is rich, nutty, and toasty!
To make brown butter:
- Add your butter to a saucepan or sauté pan set over medium.
- Once the butter is melted, swirl the pan sporadically over the next few minutes to promote even cooking.
- Once the butter begins to brown and you see dark brown bits at the bottom of the pan, remove from the heat.
- Transfer to a dish to cool unless you plan to cook ingredients directly in the pan (which is what we’ll do for this recipe!).
The mushrooms in this recipe are cooked directly in the brown butter, soaking up all of that flavor. I opted for a mushroom blend to offer variety in both texture and flavor.
Cooked pasta is added directly to the pan of brown butter mushrooms and topped with parmesan cheese. Completely delicious!
Ways To Make Brown Butter Mushroom Pasta Your Own
You can personalize this dish to make it your own:
- Add more veg. Feel free to add additional vegetables to make this pasta your own. Asparagus, onion, leek, spinach, kale, or butternut squash would be delicious!
- Switch up the cheese. I love the salty crunch that comes from a parmesan cheese, but the sky is the limit here. Pecorino, brie, blue cheese, or a soft truffle cheese would be excellent substitutions!
- Use whatever pasta you have. I like using a shorter pasta when using whole mushrooms as I do in this recipe, but you could easily swap in bucatini, spaghetti, linguine, or pappardelle and chop the mushrooms for a perfect swirl of pasta in each bite.
- Add herbs! Sage could be considered brown butter’s girlfriend: they’re perfect together! Heartier herbs, like thyme or rosemary, would also make great additions!
What To Serve With Brown Butter Mushroom Pasta
- Wine! A crisp Chenin Blanc or a sparkling option would cut the richness of the pasta nicely. A light Pinot Noir would make an excellent red choice, too!
- Garlic bread
- A light salad ( this is one of my favorite salads to serve with pasta!).
- A light dessert, like my Three Ingredient Chocolate Mousse. Or, go all out with this Chocolate Pudding Cake!
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Brown Butter Mushroom Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 lb pasta of choice, cooked according to package instructions
- 8 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 16 oz assorted mushrooms, sliced
- 1/4 cup yellow onion or shallot
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese, more for serving
Instructions
- Cook pasta according to package instructions.
- Meanwhile, prepare the brown butter mushrooms. Add butter to a saute pan set over medium heat. Allow the butter to melt, swirling the pan sporadically over the next few minutes. The butter will start to turn golden brown. Keep a close eye on it, as it can burn quickly! Once you notice dark brown spots on the bottom of the pan and the butter is slightly foamy, add your mushrooms, tossing to coat them completely.
- Reduce heat to medium low, and stir mushrooms every so often to encourage even cooking. Add salt and pepper. After about 5 minutes of cooking, add the garlic and onion. Stir to combine, and continue to cook for another 5-10 minutes, until mushrooms, onion, and garlic are softened.
- Once the pasta is done cooking, strain it and add it directly to the pan with the mushrooms. Toss to combine, and sprinkle in 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese.
- Serve pasta with additional parmesan, salt, and pepper.