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Easy, Italian-style recipe: Sun-dried Tomato and Mushroom Pasta in a Garlic and Basil Cream Sauce. Enjoy this meatless pasta as is, or serve it with grilled chicken or grilled veggies!
If you're looking for a delicious and easy-to-make pasta recipe to add to your weekly/monthly recipe rotation, try this sun-dried tomato and mushroom pasta in a garlic and basil creamy sauce. The combination of flavors in this dish is SO GOOD, it's pure comfort food that you will be tempted to eat right out of the pan:
The fettuccine pasta is tossed with sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, mushrooms, and basil in a very tasty, creamy and velvety sauce.
This Italian-inspired dish is great served with garlic bread on the side. And a big fresh salad. And please, don't forget about a glass of wine.
I've been eating the leftovers for 3 days now, and the pasta + the sauce still taste just great! The pasta is best reheated in a pan, on medium heat, with a little bit of milk added gradually to thin the sauce as it gets reheated.
This delicious, meatless pasta dish is TOTALLY WORTH making it!
Sun-dried tomato and mushroom pasta in a garlic and basil sauce
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 8 oz mushrooms sliced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 3.5 oz sun-dried tomatoes diced
- 2 cubes chicken bouillon cubes (use Vegetarian "Chicken" Bouillon for vegetarian version)
- 2 cups water
- ½ cup half and half
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ½ cup Parmesan cheese shredded
- 1 tablespoon dried basil or up to 2 tablespoons minced fresh basil
- ½ lb fettuccine pasta
Instructions
- Heat olive oil on medium-high heat, add sliced mushrooms and garlic - and cook the vegetables for about 3 minutes. Add diced sun-dried tomatoes. Reduce heat.
- Dissolve 2 cubes of chicken bouillon in 2 cups of boiling water. Carefully add the broth to the skillet - continue to cook the vegetables in a chicken broth on medium heat until the mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes absorb some of the broth and the broth reduces somewhat. Add half and half, heavy cream and bring to boil just for a short moment. Add Parmesan cheese and cook the sauce, stirring, for a couple of minutes, on low-medium heat until the cheese melts. Add the basil.
- If your sauce is too thick at this point - add another ½ cup half and half. If your sauce looks thin to you - do not continue simmering the sauce to thicken it as you will be adding pasta shortly (in the next step) - and pasta will absorb some of the sauce liquid. Even if the sauce looks thin now, it will not be so thin once you add pasta.
- Cook fettuccine al dente according to the package instruction. Drain and rinse in cold water (this will stop the cooking). Add the fettuccine into the sauce and continue cooking the sauce with the pasta in it, on medium heat, for a couple of minutes (or more - to achieve the desired thickness) stirring constantly to coat well.
- Note: do not add salt to the creamy sauce because it should already be salty enough from the dissolved chicken cubes. Only in the very end when the sauce is done, you may add some salt if needed.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer:
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist's advice.
Made this pasta tonight and substituted the pasta for shirataki (not the gross/tough tofu kind, but actual mushroom shirataki) for the gluten free. It was really great! If you use shirataki, definitely cut back on the broth. I cut back by half and I think next time I make, I will use even less. Thanks for posting!
Karyn, I've never heard of shirataki, but I looked them up and they are Japanese noodles that are gluten free with very interesting texture. I recently became gluten intolerant and now I make all my pastas with gluten free noodles from Tinkyada. Thank you for your tips!
True shirataki noodles (I buy the Miracle Noodle brand) are amazing and very versatile, as they essentially taste like whatever you cook them with. You have to read closely to make sure you don't get the easier to find tofu ones; their consistency is strange and almost octopus-like. My husband refuses to eat anything with those! And thank you for the note about the Tinkyada noodles - the reviews look great I will definitely be trying them!
I can see how they would absorb all the flavors around them - they almost seem like they are see-through noodles. Thanks for mentioning the brand - I'll be looking for it online.
Made this for dinner....it was so good!
Thank you - glad you liked it!
OMG! Amazing! Mine was a little thin so I just let it site for about 10 mins. Off the burner and it thickened beautifully and was sooooo delicious. Restaraunt quality for sure.
Thank you Jenn! Yes, letting the hot pasta made with cream and cheese sit for a bit does thicken it! I've learned this trick a long time ago. And, like I mention in the recipe, after being refrigerated, this sauce might need some milk to thin it down - that's how much lower temperatures affect the texture of the cream sauce.
I will definitely try this one, for my bestfriend Birthday tom,she will love this because she's crazy for Pasta and this one is Healthy too, my kids will love this also. Thanks Ms. Julia for this great and simple recipe. More power!
Ria, you are so welcome! This recipe is really easy and I hope you will enjoy it!
I made this tonight, with a few adjustments. I used low sodium chicken broth instead of bullion. I also added fresh basil & oregano from my garden. I sautéed some onions with the veggies, then I added about 2 cups of chopped chicken from a left over rotisserie chicken. Next time I'll try some red paper flakes too. Yum! Yum!
Wow, you made this recipe so much better by using low sodium chicken broth, fresh basil and oregano plus extra veggies. And, I love this dish with chicken - chicken makes it so complete!
Making this tonight but don't have the heavy cream or half and half to avoid a quick trip to the store could I use whole milk and make a roux?
In theory, yes you could use milk and a roux, but have to be careful not to over do it as you will be adding Parmesan cheese into the hot sauce which will thicken it even more. I would use a very small amount of roux, then add Parmesan cheese and let it melt and combine with the sauce, and see how thick the sauce gets.
made this for my fam, but used chicken stock and lower fat cream alongside the half&half. was still super good! i loved how easy it was. will make again.
Hi Amy! Thanks for stopping by! Good to know that using chicken stock instead of chicken bullion cubes and lower fat cream worked!
Can I make this in a crock pot? Suggestions please.
Jaci, I never made pasta dish in a crock pot, and I am afraid the pasta would get way too soft, or even mushy, if making this in a crockpot.
Definitely a weekend dish looks amazing
Thanks, Alison! It's a great comfort food dish!
I made this for dinner tonight and it was incredible! I added spinach and cut back a bit on the cream but it turned out great! Simple and delicious. Thanks so much for sharing.
Mel, thank you! I am glad you enjoyed this recipe for dinner! I agree - cutting back on cream should not be too detrimental to this recipe 🙂 - I am tempted to make another, low fat version of it, myself. 🙂
I made this tonight but used spaghetti bc that's all I had. Also, no chicken broth or cubes in the house so I used boiling water with salt. Let me tell you, my family devoured this dish! My 11 year old son said, and I quote, "what is in this sauce? It's amazing!" I'm impressed when he's impressed! Great recipe!!
Sophia, so glad you liked this recipe! Wow, good to know that water with salt was enough and didn't compromise the flavor!
do you think it would be as good with chicken or shrimp?
Yes, it would be an excellent dish for shrimp or chicken. I actually made a chicken version of it on the site here: https://juliasalbum.com/2014/03/pasta-with-chicken-mushrooms-sun-dried-tomatoes-in-a-creamy-garlic-and-basil-sauce/
I made this last night and we both LOVED it ~ and my husband is not a huge pasta fan!
Thank you, Catlya! So glad your family enjoyed it!
Instead of using chicken bouillon (since it typically has MSG), do you think I could substitute 2 c. organic chicken broth/stock? This sounds delish!
Yes, you can - you might need to add more salt, of course, since chicken bouillon cubes are so salty to begin with.