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I cannot stop making this creamy mushroom ricotta pasta! It’s made in under 30 minutes, uses minimal ingredients, is a meatless dish, and is a hearty dinner (think super special, but not complicated), that will make everyone fall in love with mushrooms all over again.
Creamy Mushroom Ricotta Pasta
We have a few favorite mushroom dishes on the site: The Ultimate Garlicky Mushroom Side Dish, Homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup (Lightened-Up!), Meatless Chipotle Mushroom Tacos, and One-Pan Chicken in Mushroom Sauce. If you love mushrooms like we do, you are going to LOVE this creamy mushroom ricotta pasta. There’s something about the combination of these flavors. garlic, thyme and mushrooms, that come together to make the perfect comfort food meal.
I keep making this easy pasta with ricotta cheese (and mushrooms) for a quick weeknight dinner for me and Mike after Skylar goes to bed, and we can’t get enough of it! Baby Bella mushrooms are now a staple in my grocery haul.
Here’s what you need to make it:
- Baby bella mushrooms
- Onion
- Olive oil
- Butter
- Garlic cloves
- Red pepper flakes
- Fine sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Dried thyme
- Ricotta cheese
- Package of pasta of choice
- Parsley, for garnish
Ricotta Cheese
If you tolerate cheese, ricotta is a great one. It’s delicate, creamy, spreadable, and has a light (not at all overpowering) flavor. I recommend buying good-quality ricotta!
You can often use cottage cheese instead of ricotta cheese in recipes. You may need to adjust spices more, but it can be a good substitute.
Pasta
I use gluten-free pasta for this ricotta pasta. I’ve made it with elbow pasta, bow ties, and tagliatelle. You can use ANY pasta you like in this dish, gluten-free or regular! You can also adjust the quantity if you want it to be pasta heavy or mushroom heavy!
How to customize this mushroom ricotta pasta:
Add in more veggies:
- Add in 2 large handfuls of fresh spinach at the end and cook until wilted.
- Add in 1/2 cup or more of frozen peas and let cook until soft!
Make it dairy-free:
Can’t use ricotta cheese? Make a quick batch of our cashew cream to make it creamy without any added dairy! Cashew cream is simply soaked cashews that are blended until they are smooth and creamy. We love that it’s simple to make and adds more nutrition ( healthy fats and protein!) to the pasta dish if you can’t have ricotta cheese.
Also, you can ditch the butter if you need, and just add a drop more oil if needed.
Love garlic?
If you love garlic, this is a dish where the more the better! If you have extra cloves on hand, toss them in for an extra garlicky mushroom pasta dish!
Add a protein:
Serve this meatless mushroom pasta with a protein if you’d like. We love it with our Spatchcock Chicken or our easy Steak recipe.
Watch the video here:
Love this pasta dish? Try these other favorites:
- One Pot Pantry Pasta with Chickpeas and Peppers
- Sausage and Vegetable Pasta
- Gluten-Free BLT Pasta Salad
- Italian Pasta Salad
Creamy Mushroom Ricotta Pasta
Ingredients
- 12 ounces uncooked pasta I like Jovial gluten-free elbow pasta
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 large onion halved and sliced
- 16 ounces baby bella mushrooms cleaned and sliced
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- Pinch crushed red pepper flakes optional
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/4 cup leftover pasta water
- 1/2 cup whole milk ricotta plus more for garnish
- Chopped parsley for garnish
Instructions
- Cook pasta-of-choice following package directions. Reserve 3/4 cup of the pasta water before draining in a colander, then drain and set aside.
- Meanwhile, heat olive oil and butter over medium heat in a large skillet. Add onions and cook, for 3-5 minutes until beginning to soften. Then, add in mushrooms and cook until all their water has been released and evaporated, about 7-10 minutes.
- Add the garlic continue to cook for 1 minute, or just until the garlic softens.
- Add in red pepper flakes, salt, pepper, and thyme to your mushroom mixture and stir to combine.
- Add 1/4 cup of the reserved pasta water to the skillet and stir to combine, then add in your ricotta cheese. Add more reserved pasta as desired. I usually find 1/4 cup to be enough. Discard remaining if you don't use.
- Add in pasta and stir until everything is evenly combined, adding in more pasta water as necessary. Taste and adjust seasoning.
- Garnish with fresh chopped parsley, and the additional ricotta on top of the pasta if desired. Add a pinch of additional red pepper flakes, if desired, and serve.
Notes
- You can make this dish more pasta heavy or less, just add in as much pasta as desired when combining the pasta in step 6!
Enjoyed it a lot! Lovely texture and flavor. Great way to use up a little leftover ricotta cheese. Next time we’ll add a few fro3! Peas for color and health. We happen to have fresh thyme so we used that. We used baby Bellas (as directed in the recipe) Which I’m sure are better than just button mushrooms. Thank you and nice job on this recipe 😀
We love this recipe so much. The pasta in the instant pot is fantastic when you live at 8,500 feet. It comes together so quick and its flavor is amazing. Highly recommend this recipe.
I made this for dinner and let me tell you, it was delicious! I didn’t have ricotta but I used Barrata cheese. This will be on our rotating menu for sure!
Any thoughts on making in the instapot? Would you add the ricotta after the pasta cooks?
I wouldn’t do IP – it’s so quick on stove.
Yummy. Easy weeknight dinner. I added some bacon once the mushrooms were cooked. I would make again.
I am OBSESSED with this dish! Hubby or I can make it fairly quickly after a long day. We often have the ingredients on hand anyway for a last-minute dish, if needed. We’ve made it at least four times in the last month and I am always eager for the leftovers. A true winner winner delicious dinner!
Made this tonight and added spinach with a little burrata on top. We loved it.
a nice pasta splurge for me on my cheat day, thank you, all the pasta (ricotta too) that I was missing in one dish, thank you!
This was so good and so easy to make! My family (who doesn’t like mushrooms) ate seconds! This one will be in the rotation.
Really enjoyed this dish! Added some leftover steak at the end and it went together well. Came together quickly and easily, perfect for a weeknight meal.
We made this last night and it was amazing! Like restaurant quality good. Will definitely be adding this to our regular rotation. Thank you!
This was a real winner in my house tonight for a picky husband and a 7 month old doing baby led weaning! Not only was it tasty but super easy and quick. I did have to make dairy free swaps for our current dairy free diet and used Kite Hill brand almond milk ricotta cheese and Mikynos butter- still turned out amazing! Highly recommend and will be adding this to the “go to” rotation.