Creamy Mushroom-Fontina Pasta
Growing up in an Italian family, I ate pasta no less than once a week. If my mom didn’t make any during the week, I was sure to get my fill at my grandma’s on Sundays. The thing about traditional Sunday dinners in my Italian family? Pasta was always, always, always served with red sauce. The only exception was a rigatoni, Italian sausage and green pepper pasta dish that my grandma used to make with an olive oil dressing. Even then, she still made a batch of “regular spaghetti” with red sauce… you know, just in case someone felt like eating that, as well. Italian grandmas, you truly have to love them.
Since I grew up on a strict red sauce diet, I’ve been doing some experimenting with other types of pasta dishes. I’ve found that I really love a simple, creamy sauce, wide pasta noodles and mushrooms. This dish is a compilation of all of those elements, and utterly fantastic.
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The sauce for this recipe is silky smooth and deliciously creamy, although it requires no actual cream. The secret? Using some of the liquid that the pasta was boiled in – it’s very starchy after boiling the pasta, and when paired with some butter, creates a perfect sauce with a creamy texture. For this dish, I also threw in some cubed fontina, which melts beautifully into the sauce. It’s creamy and has a mild flavor, which pairs really well with the cremini mushrooms. This just might be my new favorite pasta dish!
Are you from a red sauce or non-red sauce family? What are your favorite types of pasta?
One year ago: Jalapeño Cheddar Bagels
Two years ago: Salted Caramel Ice Cream
Creamy Mushroom-Fontina Pasta
Ingredients
- 10 ounces (283.5 g) dried wide pasta, I used mafalda
- ½ cup (113.5 g) unsalted butter, divided
- 20 ounces (566.99 g) cremini mushrooms, sliced
- ½ cup (5 g) finely chopped shallots, about 2 large shallots
- ⅓ cup (80 ml) dry white wine
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 8 ounces (226.8 g) Fontina cheese, diced small
- ½ cup (30 g) chopped parsley
- Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Cook the pasta until al dente, according to the package directions. Drain and reserve ¾ cup of the cooking water.
- Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sauté half of the mushrooms, stirring occasionally, for 7 minutes; transfer to a plate. Repeat with 2 tablespoons butter and the remaining mushrooms, transferring them to the plate with the rest of the mushrooms.
- Add the shallots to skillet and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms back to the skillet, along with the wine; cook until the wine is reduced by half, about 3 minutes. Add the reserved cooking liquid and bring to a boil. Stir in the remaining 4 tablespoons butter and season with 1 teaspoon salt.
- Reduce the heat to low and add the cooked pasta, cheese and parsley, tossing with the sauce until the pasta is coated and the cheese starts melting. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.
Notes
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Hi Michelle! This looks soo delicious! I was just wondering how you think it would hold up if I prepared it and then froze it for those hectic days once baby arrives! Do you have any freezer friendly meals on your site that you would recommend (I didn’t see a category for this in the recipe index!)? Thanks in advance :)! Alicia
Hi Alicia, I think you could freeze this successfully. Any of the mac and cheese recipes and the turkey tetrazzini are others that come to mind!
Hello i’m Fron Panamá and i love it aaaaaalllll recipe this blog
You hace excellent recipe. I have done severas of your recipe
Bon appetit.
Saludos desde Panamá.
Hi. First of all this looks fabulous. Is there any way in which I could substitute something else for the wine that is called for in this recipe?
Thank you.
P.s. – I adore your blog and your work. You inspire me. :) Thank you for sharing such beautiful recipes.
Hi Manali, Thank you for the kind words! You can substitute chicken broth for the wine in the recipe. Enjoy!
Thank you Michelle, I just made it tonight for dinner and it was amazing. My family loved it. Cheers. :)
My family is 100% a red sauce family as well :) Meat sauce with pasta/lasagna/or stuffed shells are served at every holiday! My mom has started making pasta for the past few years though, since my parents started growing their own basil.
That being said, I too have discovered the awesomeness of pasta water cream sauce! This sounds delicious!
I love my mushrooms, but my husband doesn’t. Im always bummed when I see something like this, get my mouth watering but know I can’t make it. :(
Hi Michelle,
What an amazing recipe! I made this dish tonight using pappardelle pasta and added blackened chicken! The flavors are amazing! Thanks again for a great recipe!!!!
Made this for dinner last night and LOVED it!!
This sounds great! I love fontina cheese! Need to try asap!
OK, seriously, this is one of the best pasta dishes I HAVE EVER MADE!! We ate it on Thursday, and we want to make it again tonight. The fontina is perfect, as is everything about it..thanks so much. This is simply amazing..and so easy.
My Italian family also had ‘macaroni’, which stood for whatever type of pasta was cooked, every Sunday as well as at least one other night a week. The ritual was that all branches of the family descended on my grandparents’ house after church. On non-holidays, when we ate at our respective homes, the moms would carry in large pots which they would fill with ‘gravy’ from Grandmom’s vat on the stove. I never heard the words pasta or sauce until I was in college. All red sauce was, and is, referred to as gravy. Anything brown is brown gravy and any thing white is white sauce. But I digress…can’t wait to try this recipe. Stumbled upon this site looking for Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes (I didn’t name them), which a friend gave us yesterday. Absolutely the best we’ve ever eaten!!!!!!!!!!!!
Made me chuckle; Italian family = pasta ONCE a week??? Crikey. Non-Italian here… and a four times a week man ;) lol
PS: chuck a bundle of fried bacon in with this too.
Grazis tanto!!!
When I was growing up, I thought each noodle had its own sauce — most of which were “red” (tomato based) but each with its own twist. My Italian mom was a wonderful cook. This recipe looks great. Thanks!
You can’t go wrong with mushrooms in a creamy melted cheese sauce!
Mind you you must be gutted this aint got no CORNED BEEF in it!!! :D lol
This is right up my alley! I love pasta but have never enjoyed red sauce. I won’t eat it on anything, pizza, pasta, etc.
when i saw this, i thought i had died and gone to heaven. This recipe is a must try for me!
XOXOJOANNIE
ANURBAN-EXPLORER.BLOGSPOT.COM
This looks amazing!!! Just wondering what wine you use.
Hi Stacey, I think that I used a sauvignon blanc… I had some leftover wine in the fridge so I used it up.
This recipe looks so amazing! Please come by my link party and post it for others to see! http://home-styled.blogspot.com/2013/04/link-party-show-your-style-sunday-2.html?m=1
I married into an Italian family. from Jersey. Once a week my mother-in-law always made spaghetti and meatballs! Good Italian food always available. This looks so yummy. Thanks for the excellent recipe!
creamy cheesy sauce is so much better than a red sauce. And this looks delicious.
i happened to have an insane amount of fontina cheese in the frig that my brother gave me so made this last night…YUM! very versatile recipe. i reduced butter to 2/3 of a cube, added parboiled asparagus & (2) fresh chopped roma tomatoes, and winde whole wheat egg-type noodles. served with coarse grated parm.
thank you…this recipe is a keeper!
Oh wow does this pasta look great!
omg. this is the dinner of my dreams. i can never resist fontina + mushrooms + pasta. you’re killing me!
Such a fantastic pasta! I enjoy pasta multiple times a week because it’s super simple and so darn tasty! This one is being added to the menu for sure!! Thanks for sharing…
-Shannon
Your pasta looks and sounds so delicious! Thanks for sharing this recipe!
We’re not Italian, but we eat pasta at least once a week, and it’s rarely with red sauce. Nothing against red sauce, it’s just that it gives my husband heart burn. Sooooo…this is exactly the kind of pasta dish that we love at my home…I especially love your choice of cheese. YUMMO!
This is amazing :) Love it!
Oh, this is on my short list for this week! I think I’ll get some dried porcini mushrooms to bump up the shroom taste! I’m drooling now, thanks for posting this recipe!
Did someone say fontina? I am so there! What marvelous pictures. Is there anything you can’t do :)
This was just meant to be…I received your post via email WHILE I was thinking of what to have for dinner! I need to make something with the mushrooms I bought yesterday…and you’ve sent this post out at the perfect time! You’re awesome!
Mmm a cream-less creamy sauce, what a delicious idea – this sounds wonderful Michelle! I am a HUGE pasta lover, unfortunately my hubby isn’t as crazy about it as I am – but I try to sneak it in whenever I can ;)