Miso butter pasta with mushrooms
Spaghetti in a savory, silky miso butter sauce with browned mushrooms and green onions, the Japanese-style pasta that tastes deeply rich from a handful of ingredients.
- 25 min total
- 20 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 2
- About $2.18 a serving
- 640 calories
- Vegetarian
Dolly says: Read the steps once before you start. Everything goes smoother after that.
Ingredients
For 2 servings.
- 8 oz baby bella mushrooms, sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 stalks green onions, thinly sliced
- 8 oz spaghetti
- 3 tbsp butter, divided
- 1½ tbsp miso paste
From your pantry
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- ¼ tsp black pepper
Each serving has about 640 calories, 20 g protein, 95 g carbs and 20 g fat, and costs about $2.18 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No baby bella mushrooms? White mushrooms work.
- No green onions? Chives work.
- No spaghetti? Fettuccine works.
- No butter? Ghee works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Fill a large pot with water, add the salt, cover and over high heat.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
While it heats, slice the mushrooms, the garlic and the green onions.
Mince. Mincing means chopping something into the tiniest pieces you can, smaller than a grain of rice. Tiny pieces melt into the dish, so you get the flavor without biting into a chunk of garlic.
How you’ll know: Every piece is tiny and about the same size, and the pile starts to look almost like a paste.
Thinly slice. Thinly slicing means cutting slices about an eighth of an inch thick, roughly two coins stacked. Thin slices cook in seconds and soften fast, which quick dishes need.
How you’ll know: A slice bends a little when you hold it by one edge, and slow, steady cuts beat fast ones.
Cook the spaghetti 1 minute less than the package says.
High heatTimer: 9 min
Meanwhile, 1 tablespoon butter in a large over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and cook 6 minutes, stirring only now and then, until browned.
Melt. Melting means gently heating something solid, like butter or cheese, until it turns liquid. Low or medium heat keeps it from browning or burning.
How you’ll know: It’s smooth and liquid, and butter may foam a little but hasn’t turned brown.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Medium-high heatTimer: 6 min
Turn the heat to low, add the garlic, and cook 30 seconds.
Low heatTimer: 30 sec
Scoop out 1 cup of and the spaghetti. the miso with ¼ cup of the pasta water in a mug until smooth.
Reserve pasta water. It means scooping out a cup of the starchy cooking water before you drain the pasta. A splash helps the sauce cling and turn silky, and it’s the step everyone forgets.
How you’ll know: A mug of cloudy water is sitting by the stove before the pasta goes into the colander.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
Whisk. Whisking means beating quickly with a whisk or a fork to blend things together. It smooths out lumps and mixes eggs, oil or sauces evenly.
How you’ll know: It all looks one even color and texture, with no streaks or lumps.
Dolly’s tip: Whisking the miso into water first stops it from clumping in the pan.Add the spaghetti, the miso mixture, the rest of the butter and the soy sauce, and until the sauce turns glossy, adding more if it looks dry.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Reserve pasta water. It means scooping out a cup of the starchy cooking water before you drain the pasta. A splash helps the sauce cling and turn silky, and it’s the step everyone forgets.
How you’ll know: A mug of cloudy water is sitting by the stove before the pasta goes into the colander.
Low heat
Serve topped with the green onions and pepper.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
