Best Creamy Mushroom Sauce for Pasta
This creamy mushroom pasta with bacon is SO GOOD. Sautéed mushrooms, savory bacon, and tender pasta noodles tossed in a creamy garlic sauce in just 30 minutes – it doesn't get much better than this!
Servings: 4 servings
Ingredients
- 12 ounces pasta noodles I used rigatoni noodles
- 8 ounces mushrooms thinly sliced
- 6 bacon strips roughly chopped
- 1 tablespoon butter (optional, see note)
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup milk or heavy cream
- 1-2 teaspoons salt to taste
- ½ teaspoon coarsely cracked black pepper or 1/8 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
- grated parmesan cheese optional topping
- chopped fresh parsley optional garnish
Instructions
- Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain, toss with a drizzle of olive oil, and set aside.
- In a large skillet, cook bacon over medium high heat until just crisp (don't overcook it). Use tongs to transfer bacon to a paper towel-lined plate to cool slightly before roughly chopping. *Keep bacon drippings in the pan* (See note for alternate method)
- Over medium-high heat, add garlic and mushrooms to the pan and sauté for 2-3 minutes until garlic is fragrant and mushrooms are tender. Stir in bacon pieces.
- Sprinkle flour over the garlic, mushrooms, and bacon and stir for 1 minute.
- Gradually whisk in chicken broth, then heavy cream, and milk. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a high simmer.
- Simmer for 5-10 minutes until sauce becomes thickened and creamy.
- Season with salt and pepper. Stir in pasta noodles.
- Taste, add salt and pepper if needed. Garnish with parmesan and parsley if desired and serve. Enjoy!
Video
Notes
Cooking the bacon: if you don't want the splatter mess of the bacon, use my oven-baked bacon method and then sauté your garlic in 2 tablespoons of butter instead of the bacon drippings. Alternately, you can use a paper towel to sop up most of the bacon grease from the pan and then melt 1-2 tablespoons butter in the pan before adding the mushrooms and garlic.
Pasta noodles: you can use any Italian pasta noodle in this recipe. Fettuccine, bowtie, ziti, penne, use your favorite or whatever you have on hand!
Nutrition
Calories: 728kcal | Carbohydrates: 74g | Protein: 21g | Fat: 39g | Saturated Fat: 20g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 13g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 109mg | Sodium: 1072mg | Potassium: 620mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 987IU | Vitamin C: 6mg | Calcium: 137mg | Iron: 2mg
