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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.
I have made this recipe about 6 times now, in the space of a month and I cannot get enough! And I'm not even a huge fan of pasta. But I've been converted. I've been adding spinach to mine and I just think this recipe is such a great vegetarian alternative on the days you don't feel like meat. Thank you so much! Love this!
Thank you, Amy! So glad to hear you've been enjoying this recipe! Yes, it's a great meatless recipe on those nights when you don't want any meat.
I based one of my vegan recipies off of the steps used here. I add a few things but it turned out beautifully, though different from what your pictures showed. I used Portabello mushrooms, one small onion, a good amount of garlic, a small handful of sundried tomatoes chopped and some frozen spinach to start out. Once that was all cooked I subbed vegetable broth for chicken broth, let it simmer. Finally I added a cup of canned coconut milk, some pepper, some Himalayan pink salt (not much because then..) I also added a glob of yellow miso paste and a healthy helping of nutritional yeast. To thicken it I mixed some cold water and cornstarch and added it to the mix. It was really wonderful, thank you for the inspiration.
HI Britt! Thank you for such a detailed comment on how you adjusted this recipe. Portobello mushrooms and added spinach sound delicious! And, good to know that coconut milk worked well in this recipe!
Yummy! Made a few subs (lol)... added 2 fresh Italian sausages (separated into pieces) while prepping the mushrooms and added about a cup of sliced artichoke hearts. I added about 3/4 cup of parm cheese to finish; then doubled the basil (because it's my favorite) and added cracked black pepper. Fantastic using pappardelle noodles. Once I started weighing out the sun-dried tomatoes, I realized that I was going to end up with way too many to use 3.5 oz, so I stopped at just over 1 oz. which gave me close to a cup. Lastly, I replaced the water with unsalted chicken broth and to which I added a heaping tablespoon of chicken concentrate (Better than Bouillon brand). I measured this into an xlarge pyrex measuring cup then through into the microwave for about 4 minutes at high. Results = fantastic... would def. make again!
Yes, that's quite a few changes you made to this recipe, LOL! Love the addition of Italian sausages and artichoke hearts - really great additions! You made this recipe into a very different and delicious meal!
Your blog is filled with amazing recipes. I literally started drooling when I read this, follow and I can't wait to eat! Everything looks so good!
I plan to make this recipe for 30 people and to add cut up pieces of chicken breasts. What measurements should I use? It will be my first time using this recipe. Thank you
That's a huge number of people to cook for! I admire your bravery! 🙂 I have to admit I never cooked for that many people. I know this recipe can be safely doubled so I am sure it's doable for 30 people assuming you have enough pans or big enough pans. When cooking this kind of pasta recipe for lot of people, do make sure to add ENOUGH SPICES AND SALT, otherwise your sauce will be completely bland, especially if you're cooking in large quantities. As to give you an idea of how much chicken to use, here is a similar recipe with chicken: https://juliasalbum.com/chicken-mozzarella-pasta-with-sun-dried-tomatoes/
It was great!
This came up on Pinterest and I was excited to try another one of your recipes! We made it vegan again by simply making 1 cup of béchamel sauce (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/mario-batali/bechamel-sauce-recipe.html#) from earth balance and cashew milk instead of the half and half/cream. Then I just added a little nutritional yeast and left out the parmesan. Amazing and our 2 + 4 year old loved it 🙂 This would be a great recipe to make for meat-eating company - you can't even tell it's vegan!!!
Thank you, Kaitlyn! Great tips on how to make this recipe vegan! Good to know that cashew milk worked in this recipe.
Hi Julia,
I cooked it for my daughter, she's a vegetarian but surprisingly we ate it too as it was so heavenly delicious. I love it and my hubby too. Thanks for that. It will definitely included to my recipes ..
Thank you, Theresa! I am glad your family enjoyed this recipe!
Cooked it last night, and it was amazing! The flavors are very well balanced. For my 2nd I topped with pine nuts, too.
This dish is right up my alley. Thank you for explaining what half and half is. We don't have that in Northern Ireland. We do have single cream though which is thinner and pourable, unlike whipping cream and double cream. Im wondering if it would be our equivalent to half and half? Great dish, I am definitely going to try this one. And yes, Garlic Bread would be a great accompaniment to it. Lee 🙂
WAY too salty with two cubes of bouillon, next time I'll go for one or even half of one. Otherwise AMAZING, definitely going to have to come back to this one. Especially in the summer when I have fresh basil on hand 🙂
Thank you! So glad you liked it! Yes, the fresh basil would be great!
This is an AMAZING recipe!!! I am vegan so I do make a few changes to better suite my personal beliefs. I use 3 no chicken bouillon cubes, 3/4 cup of either soy or coconut creamer (depending on what I have) and an additional 1/4 cup of unsweetened almond milk shaken up with about a TBSP of cornstarch before being added to the skillet. Then I use follow you heart's Parmesan shreds and follow the original instructions exactly. Its SOOO yummy! Thank you for giving us such a great go-to in our dinner rotation!!!
I made this last night for dinner, OMG was this delicious. My wife who is a picky eater, has said that I will be making this again.
Should the sun dried tomatoes be packed in oil?
I just made this tonight and it was awesome and soooo easy! I used a big handful of fresh basil and for some reason threw in some cubed roasted butternut squash. To die for! Thanks for a great recipe!
Cassie, so happy you liked it! Adding roasted butternut squash is a great idea - I love it!
Looks yummy...will try this weekend. Kids would love it I'm sure.
Thank you, Marissa! Enjoy! 🙂