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!
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: 728 kcal, Carbohydrates: 74 g, Protein: 21 g, Fat: 39 g, Saturated Fat: 20 g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 4 g, Monounsaturated Fat: 13 g, Trans Fat: 1 g, Cholesterol: 109 mg, Sodium: 1072 mg, Potassium: 620 mg, Fiber: 3 g, Sugar: 7 g, Vitamin A: 987 IU, Vitamin C: 6 mg, Calcium: 137 mg, Iron: 2 mg