5-Ingredient Creamy Mushroom Pasta
5 ingredients, one pan, done in 25 minutes. Dinner decided.
It's the kind of night where you open the fridge, see a bag of mushrooms, and immediately want to close it again. Don't. This creamy mushroom pasta comes together with five ingredients you almost certainly have — pasta, mushrooms, butter, garlic, and heavy cream — and it delivers that deep, satisfying richness that makes it feel like real cooking. No complicated technique, no long simmer, no chopping marathon. Just a pan, some heat, and twenty-five minutes between you and a bowl of something genuinely good. Expect a sauce that's creamy without being heavy, and mushrooms that go golden and savory fast.
Ingredients
- 8 oz pasta — fettuccine, linguine, or spaghetti all work
- 8 oz cremini or button mushrooms — sliced about ¼-inch thick
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter
- 3 unit garlic cloves — minced or pressed
- 0.75 cup heavy cream
- 1 tsp kosher salt — plus more for pasta water
- 0.25 tsp black pepper
Method
- 1 Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Cook pasta according to package directions until al dente. Before draining, scoop out about ½ cup of pasta water and set it aside.
- 2 While the pasta cooks, melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once the butter foams, add the mushrooms in a single layer. Let them sit undisturbed for 2–3 minutes until golden on the bottom, then stir and cook another 2 minutes.
- 3 Reduce heat to medium. Add the minced garlic and stir constantly for about 60 seconds until fragrant — don't let it brown.
- 4 Pour in the heavy cream and stir to combine. Let it simmer gently for 2–3 minutes until it thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon. Season with salt and pepper.
- 5 Add the drained pasta directly to the skillet. Toss to coat, adding a splash of reserved pasta water a little at a time if the sauce feels too thick — you want it silky, not gluey.
- 6 Taste, adjust salt if needed, and serve immediately.
Variations
- Faster swap: pre-sliced mushrooms + garlic paste — Buy pre-sliced mushrooms and use ½ tsp of garlic paste from a tube instead of fresh cloves — drops prep to under 2 minutes.
- Dairy-free swap — Replace butter with olive oil and heavy cream with full-fat canned coconut cream. The flavor shifts slightly sweeter but the texture stays rich and satisfying.
- Add protein: stir in rotisserie chicken — Shred about 1 cup of store-bought rotisserie chicken and add it to the skillet with the cream. No extra cooking required.
Notes
The pasta water is your secret weapon here — the starch helps the cream sauce cling to every strand. Don't skip saving it. Mushrooms release a lot of moisture, so resist the urge to stir them too early; letting them sit is what gets you golden color and deeper flavor instead of a steamed, rubbery texture. Leftovers reheat okay with a small splash of cream or water to loosen the sauce.
Equipment that helps
- Large skillet (12-inch) — A wide surface area lets mushrooms brown instead of steam, which is the whole reason they taste good here.
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