Stir-Fry

Miso-Mushroom Pasta

by:
May  1, 2021
4.6
106 Ratings
Photo by Jenny Huang
  • Prep time 10 minutes
  • Cook time 20 minutes
  • Serves 2
Author Notes

A while back, I worked at Table & Apron, a produce-driven restaurant set in the sleepy suburbs of Kuala Lumpur. During my time there, I fondly remember serving up many super jazzy Asian-influenced dishes. Think lemongrass-brined fried chicken, pork ribs with a kicap manis glaze, and fern salads laced with fish sauce and calamansi. All these dishes were amazing in their own right, but the one dish that I kept sneaking mouthfuls of during service (I call it quality control) was this funky, creamy mushroom pasta—with miso!

Besides its alliterative allure, miso and mushrooms are two umami-heavy flavors that are often employed to uplift any dish. So when put together, they work in tandem and complement each other so well, creating a massive umami bomb that leaves you salivating for more.

At the restaurant, we start off by tempering the miso with butter and cream, giving it the form of a rich, funky sauce. The mushrooms, a classic ingredient in creamy pasta dishes, are then sautéed and added to this creamy base. The third component of the dish—the pasta—serves as a vessel for the mushrooms and sauce to adhere to. So the more sauce you manage to get onto your pasta, the better.

Even after eating countless bowls of this pasta at the restaurant, I never seem to tire of it, and it really has become my ultimate comfort food. And it isn’t just me who is obsessed with this dish. At the restaurant, this umami-laden pasta is the second most popular dish, dwarfed only by their fried chicken—because, well, it’s fried chicken.

Contrary to the belief that restaurant-quality dishes require incredible finesse to cook and take hours to prep, all that's needed for this miso pasta is 30 minutes and a few simple steps. With just three straightforward components—sautéed mushrooms, a miso sauce, and pasta—the key lies in the proper treatment of each component, cooking them with the utmost care and respect and allowing their flavors to really develop and shine.

During my time at Table & Apron, I’ve picked up three important tips that can elevate this dish to restaurant-worthy status:

First, when sautéing the mushrooms, it’s crucial to not overcrowd the pan. Treat each piece of mushroom like you would a steak. You want to have a bit of space in between each piece of mushroom, giving it a nice golden sear, as opposed to having a mound of mushrooms in the pan which would give you soggy, steamed pieces of fungi.

Then, for the miso cream sauce, it helps to whip the butter with the miso paste until it becomes a smooth, almost fluffy paste. This ensures you don’t end up with big, salty lumps of miso speckled throughout the dish, and makes it a whole lot easier for the sauce to emulsify later on.

And finally, the pasta. Most sauce-based pasta recipes expect you to know exactly how many minutes it requires you to make the sauce, so that you can time your pasta to finish cooking just as your sauce comes together. Otherwise, the pasta will turn cold as you’re still busy prepping the sauce, in which case you’d proceed to reheat it in the sauce and probably end up with gloopy, overcooked pasta. There’s an easy solution to this that doesn’t require you to be a chef version of Dr. Strange: Cut down the pasta cooking time by a minute or two. Though the pasta will have a tad more bite than the revered al dente, once the sauce comes together, you can add the pasta in and put it on the heat for a little longer for that final bit of cooking.

Et voila! You’ll end up with a beautiful sauce and perfectly cooked pasta.

Helpful tools for this recipe:
- Italian Pasta Pot
- Five Two Wooden Spoons
- Five Two Stoneware Bowls

Jun

What You'll Need
Watch This Recipe
Miso-Mushroom Pasta
Ingredients
  • 7 ounces dried pasta, such as bucatini
  • 4 ounces mushrooms (I use an equal mix of shimeji, eryngii, and oyster mushrooms, but most other combinations are good too)
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoon sherry vinegar, or white wine vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons red miso paste
  • 3 tablespoons butter, softened
  • 5 garlic cloves
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 1 stalk of scallion, finely sliced
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 1 pinch black pepper
Directions
  1. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Season generously with salt until it's nearly as salty as the sea, then add dried pasta. Cook the pasta until just under al dente (a minute less than on its package directions), then drain the pasta and set aside.
  2. Chop or pull apart the mushrooms into large, bite-sized chunks. Then, heat a large skillet over high heat with a tablespoon of vegetable oil, and sauté the mushrooms for 3-5 minutes until nicely browned. When they are done, add a little sherry vinegar to the pan with the mushrooms, give them a little toss, and set aside. It’s best to cook the mushrooms in 2-3 batches and not overcrowd the pan to allow them to brown evenly.
  3. To start on the sauce, whisk the red miso paste and butter together in a small bowl until it comes together to form a smooth, fluffy paste.
  4. In a medium saucepan, add the minced garlic and a tablespoon of oil, and stir-fry over medium heat for 30 seconds to a minute until fragrant. Add in the sautéed mushrooms. Then, add in the miso-butter mixture and cream, and bring this sauce to a boil, stirring gently. Finally, add the cooked pasta into the sauce, and stir until the pasta is well coated. Salt it to taste, and cook for 1-2 minutes until the pasta is al dente, then remove from the heat.
  5. Portion the pasta into two bowls, and top with sliced scallions and freshly cracked black pepper.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • Elizabeth Stevens Morris
    Elizabeth Stevens Morris
  • tastysweet
    tastysweet
  • Peter Carpenter
    Peter Carpenter
  • Amy Mauldin
    Amy Mauldin

104 Reviews

Amy M. December 28, 2023
I’ve made this three times… What a delicious, easy, flexible recipe. Amazing as written. When I didn’t have garlic, I used shallot. I once substituted half-and-half for the cream. It’s just as good over fresh pasta as dried. Everyone I’ve served it to has raved… And sometimes I make it for myself when I’m feeling indulgent. Bravo!
 
Jess November 5, 2023
This is probably the best pasta I've ever made. I've made it twice now--both times I doubled the recipe for leftovers, and I added shredded chicken thighs. The first time I used heavy cream like the recipe said, and the second time I used coconut cream, and it was just as good! My husband liked the coconut cream version better, but both versions were amazing
 
Mushroom February 10, 2023
Delicious! I added shredded chicken and it was amazing!
 
Me! January 30, 2023
Just made it and so glad. It is delicious!
 
[email protected] November 29, 2022
Delicious and easy!!
 
TracyB May 9, 2022
Who knew that miso + butter would bring so much deliciousness? Not me! Seriously easy to make, with results that taste as if it took hours of prep, cook, and reduction. So good!
 
[email protected] March 16, 2022
Just a great simple recipe. Easy to adjust for your taste but easily a crowd pleaser and yummmmmm
 
MentariCooks February 3, 2022
Just made this, my gf finished it in 2 minutes! Thanks for the recipe!
I actually don't have all the ingredients so I substitute sherry with mirin, red miso with white miso, heavy cream with milk + cornstarch. I think I used too much mirin so I corrected with some sugar. It still turn out amazing. Never have I use miso and butter together, but now I know. Thanks again Jun <3
 
Elizabeth S. January 9, 2022
This is so easy, fast, and delicious. My husband's not overly fond of mushrooms, but he enjoyed this because of the intensity of the umami flavor (and the spice of the toban djan chili bean sauce I added at the end).
 
EricaDee January 9, 2022
It was a hit. So easy to make and tasty! I didn't have sherry or white wine vinegar so I subbed in seasoned rice vinegar. This will definitely be in our recipe rotation.
 
MMYinSD January 2, 2022
This was a winner in our house! My husband couldn’t believe there wasn’t any cheese in the recipe. The miso and butter bring about amazing umami. A touch of sherry and scallions also bring some great acid and bite to the dish so everything is very well balanced. I’ll make this one again in the future. Thanks for sharing!
 
Kris P. December 15, 2021
GREA
 
Kris P. December 15, 2021
I meant to say, this is a delicious recipe. After I made it once for my daughter-in-law, she requested that i make it for her birthday today.
 
Katie May 18, 2021
Yum - so easy and delicious. I used sweet white miso bc it’s all I had on hand - upped it to 4ish tsps and a splash of soy sauce to make up for the flavor. Add some asparagus and topped with toasted walnuts, it was a dreamy dish.
 
salena April 24, 2021
Wonderful, very filling side dish for two. I used what I had: 6 oz of a dried fettucine-type pasta, 1/2 cup of light cream, and about 2 oz of snow peas and a few small asparagus spears (peas and asparagus blanched). Everything else as in the recipe. I had everything ready to go while I readied my entree and then this came together quickly in a large saucepan. My husband didn't think we'd have enough to eat (the entree was skate) but this dish made us feel like we were dining out in Italy (despite the miso, my most favorite ingredient).
 
tastysweet March 17, 2021
Does anyone know an easy way to print just the recipe?
 
Pepijn April 14, 2021
Next to save and also review (below the picture) there’s a print option. Then you can either download the page that opened and print it or print the entire page (file > print on macbook)
 
Robin January 20, 2022
I think I understand - without the 1/2 page+ intro? I don't know but if anyone does I would love to have this info for future recipe prints
 
[email protected] March 16, 2022
Download a 3rd party recipe app, I use Cookmate, it's free and I love it. Print in the app or add a tablet to your kitchen
 
Alison C. February 16, 2021
This is so yummy! I didn’t have long pasta, so I made it with whole wheat penne. I forgot the get butter to room temp, so I mixed the heavy cream with the butter and miso with an immersion blender. My toddler gobbled up the mushrooms.
 
AJ February 8, 2021
creamy, unami-ie, carby, yum
 
NXL February 2, 2021
So easy and delicious. I only had white miso. Also had some roasted garlic cloves in the freezer, so used those. Wonderful with a glass of red wine on a Friday night.
 
Dany January 8, 2021
This was amazing although I took several liberties to reduce saturated fat. I browned the mushrooms in a dry pan, used olive oil butter instead of butter, and also half and half instead of heavy cream. To thicken the sauce I added a teaspoon of cornstarch to 1/4 cup of pasta water that I saved before draining the pasta. I also used whole wheat spaghetti which complimented the flavors. Thanks for the recipe; it was easy and delicious.
 
Peter C. December 26, 2020
This was so good! I will make it again and again.