I love alfredo sauce but don’t eat it often. I grew up ordering it out at restaurants and we occasionally had it out of the jar, but now that I know how simple it is to make a mushroom alfredo pasta sauce at home, my world is opening right up! How simple? Two pans and 30 minutes level of simple!

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Mushroom Alfredo

After our trip to Italy last year (see things to do in Bologna, Italy, including our class where we learned to make pasta), we have a new take on pasta. Well, first I needed time to recover from all the pasta (my kiddo didn’t need any recovery time on that front – for the record), but now I’ve taken a few of the things we learned in our class and with all the food we enjoyed at restaurants. And at the core of it all, it’s about using great quality ingredients – and that’s it!

Homemade alfredo sauce with mushroom has loads of flavor, but it doesn’t have that many ingredients, which makes it a simple dish to make last minute or when time is short. But the great part is, you can also make it when you have all the time in the world because it’s so yummy you’ll want to!

We usually serve it with grilled chicken too. Sometimes we’ll have the mushroom fettuccine (always a go to pasta for this recipe) as a side dish and sometimes it’s sliced and mixed in for a mushroom alfredo chicken!

Mushroom Alfredo Ingredients

Mushrooms

Mushrooms are an underrated ingredient in my humble opinion. Once you learn how to work with them, they’re full of flavor and are very tender. If you think they’re chewy, note the cooking instructions. And if you think they’re earthy, make sure to clean them properly (just a damp towel to remove dirt) and use lots of butter! You can cook them without butter obviously, but they’re delectable with butter!

Butter

Oh, hey, butter! There’s only a few tablespoons of butter in here. The heavy cream is doing all the heavy lifting (hah. I’m on a roll today, but the butter adds a nice flavor, nuttiness, and helps get all the mushroom goodness from the pan!

Heavy Cream

There’s quite a bit of heavy cream in alfredo pasta sauce. It just is what it is. This is an indulgent kind of dish, so embrace it! I have found that alfredo pasta can be a bit on the heavy side, so I’ll often give smaller portions as more of a side dish than the main dish!

Parmesan

Ye old amazing parmesan. Just like the freshly cracked pepper, I’d encourage you to get freshly grated parmesan of get a hunk of parmesan and freshly grate it yourself (just use a zester). You can skip the preservatives in the packaged situation and let me tell you how much more delicious it is!

Salt & Pepper

I don’t normally include these in my list of ingredients, but they (namely the freshly cracked pepper) are fairly central to a good mushroom alfredo sauce. All those little black specks are the pepper. And freshly cracked pepper is ALWAYS the way to go. If you don’t have a pepper mill, get yourself one ASAP!

How to make Mushroom Alfredo

Cook the Mushrooms

The whole basis of a mushroom alfredo sauce is the mushrooms, so cook those first. Mushrooms are weird. They seem dry, but they actually contain a lot of liquid. Place chopped mushrooms in a hot, dry skillet and watch as they start to release liquid. And then let them reabsorb all that liquid before adding in the remaining ingredients. I told you, they are weird!

Add the butter & cream

Remember how I said butter makes mushrooms delicious, here is where that happens. The few tablespoons of butter help bring all that mushroom goodness together, helps remove anything stuck to the bottom of the pan, and gets the mushrooms ready to drink up the heavy cream.

Once the butter and cream have been added, just let it all marry for a few minutes. It’ll thicken a bit and start to look like an alfredo sauce.

Season & Mix

Here’s where you add in the salt and pepper. In case you didn’t take me seriously above or skimmed the ingredients section, I’ll say it again here. FRESHLY CRACKED PEPPER is all it’s cracked up to be. It adds flavor and freshness in a way that ground pepper can never do!

Ok. Mix in the pasta and enjoy!!

Variations of Mushroom Alfredo Sauce

Don’t laugh, but can I tell you the easiest way I switch up ALL pasta meals in our house? I just change the pasta. Yep, a spaghetti noodle one night, a bow tie the next time, and penne a while later. It somehow makes it feel new-ish!

The typical pasta for alfredo with mushrooms is fettuccine. You can also use a slightly wider tagliatelle or a definitely wider pappardelle. You can easily do the bow tie, penne, or elbow noodles too. It’s all going to be good.

You can always switch up the type of mushroom you use here. There are certainly nuances in flavors of mushrooms.

How to Store Mushroom Alfredo Pasta

Store mushroom alfredo sauce in a sealed container for 3-5 days. You an read more about my take on when to throw away leftovers.

You can also freeze mushroom alfredo sauce, but it can separate and get a little grainy. Store it in a container with as little air as possible (so a full-ish container). You can easily freeze it up to 3 months. To defrost it, place it in the refrigerator and reheat slowly on the stovetop over low to medium heat.

Pasta Recipes

We like pasta recipes around here. This creamy vegan pasta is super flavorful and great as a side dish (even for a meat eater)! We love pasta with ham too (a great recipe for leftover ham). In fact, here are a slew of fall pasta recipes (most of which are great beyond just fall)!

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Mushroom Alfredo

A simple recipe for mushroom alfredo pasta sauce. Great as a side dish or a main dish. Mushrooms are cooked with butter and heavy cream for a hearty but easy dish that comes together in 30 minutes!

Prep Time10

Cook Time15

Course: Dinner, entree

Cuisine: American, Italian

Keyword: easy dinner, pasta, vegetarian

Servings:

Calories: 869kcal

Author: Luci Petlack

Ingredients

8 ounces cremini or white button mushrooms chopped
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup heavy cream
1 ½ cups grated Parmesan cheese
16 ounces pasta cooked according to package directions
¼ teaspoon salt optional
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Chopped parsley for garnish
Grated Parmesan for garnish

Instructions

Boil water for pasta and cook according to package directions.
Meanwhile add the chopped mushrooms to a large dry skillet over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms release their liquid and it begins to bubble. Continue cooking until the skillet becomes dry again as the liquid is absorbed back into the mushrooms, about 7 minutes.
Stir in the butter and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, until fully melted. Reduce the heat to medium and pour in the heavy cream. Stir and let simmer for 3 to 5 minutes, until the cream begins to thicken slightly.
Stir in the grated Parmesan cheese and mix until the sauce is smooth and fully combined. Add the salt, if using, and the black pepper. Stir well.
Add the cooked pasta to the skillet and toss until evenly coated in the sauce. Garnish with chopped parsley and more grated Parmesan. Serve immediately.