Go Back Email Link
–+ servings
Brown Butter Mushroom Pasta Recipe - Family Meals

BROWN BUTTER MUSHROOM PASTA

We’re talking mushrooms bathed in butter that’s browned, infused with garlic and thyme, then tossed through your favourite pasta. Nutty, earthy and buttery. Oh and it's on the table in 25 minutes and can be made for a reasonable £1.56 a head.
No ratings yet
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Course Main Course
Cuisine Italian
Servings 4

Equipment

Ingredients
 
 

  • 400 g pasta
  • 100 g slightly salted/salted butter at room temperature and diced
  • 450 g pre-sliced mushrooms see notes
  • 5 garlic cloves minced
  • 2 heaped tablespoons finely chopped thyme
  • Salt & pepper to taste
  • Pecorino cheese (half a 170g block / 6oz) shaved (with a peeler) or grated to serve

Instructions
 

  • Start cooking your pasta in a large pan of hot salted water, according to the packet instructions.
  • Meanwhile, melt the butter in a light coloured (stainless steel) medium saucepan over a medium heat. Allow it to cook and bubble for around 2-5 minutes, until you can see dark brown dots at the bottom (milk proteins). Watch them carefully, you can swirl the butter around to see the colour better and do not allow to them to go burn and go black.
  • Then immediately add in the thyme, garlic and mushrooms, increase heat to high and season with the black pepper. Fry for 3-4 minutes, until softened, stirring occasionally. Take the pan off the heat.
  • When the pasta is cooked, reserve half a ladle-full of the cooking water (around 50ml / ¼ cup) and then drain the pasta. Tip the mushrooms into the pasta pan and toss until well combined. Depending how dry/wet the pasta looks add some or all of the pasta water and stir it in (there shouldn’t be a pool of sauce at the bottom of the pan, just coating the pasta). Serve in pasta bowls with shavings of pecorino on top.

Notes

Buying pre-sliced mushrooms saves so much time! If you can’t get pre-sliced that’s fine, but just remember the prep time will take longer.
MAKE IT GLUTEN FREE use gluten-free pasta.
Servings at £1.56 per person when ingredients bought from Tesco.

Baby & Toddler

Switch to unsalted butter and don’t add salt to the cook, you can remove little one’s portion then add in a generous amount of salt to the pot and toss well. Don’t serve theirs with pecorino.

BABY-LED WEANING

Choose a pasta shape little one can palm like penne, fusilli, rotini or casarecce. You can leave the mushroom slices as they are, for 9 months + you can chop them into pea-size pieces if you like.

SPOON FEEDING

For babies under 1, eating this with their fingers is the best option! See baby-led weaning tip above.
1 YEAR + you can chop the pasta shapes and larger mushroom slices in half. Serve with a fork.

FUSSY EATERS

Let them decide if they’d like pecorino on top, or even do them some grated cheddar. You can serve this with a “safe food” if you like, garlic bread or plain crusty bread would be a good choice.

STORAGE

Store leftovers in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to 3 days (2 + cook day). You can also freeze the leftovers, just be sure to defrost them for 24 hours in the fridge before reheating. When you come to reheat it in the microwave, add a drizzle of water before doing so and give it a toss roughly half way through.

Nutrition

Calories: 399kcalCarbohydrates: 12gProtein: 19gFat: 32gSaturated Fat: 20gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 9gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 98mgSodium: 1151mgPotassium: 715mgFiber: 3gSugar: 6gVitamin A: 1258IUVitamin C: 11mgCalcium: 484mgIron: 2mg
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter
Made this recipe?Leave a rating at the bottom of this page! You could also post a picture on Instagram and tag @kidfriendlyfamilymeals to share it with me. Or post to Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest.