Miso Mushroom Pasta

Name: Miso Mushroom Pasta
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 40 min
Ingredients: 4 ounces uncooked spaghetti*; 1 cup pasta water; ½ teaspoon dashi powder; 3.5 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced; 2 tablespoons unsalted butter; ½ medium onion (thinly sliced); 7 garlic cloves (minced); 2 ½ teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce; 2 tablespoons sake; 1 ½ tablespoon white miso paste; 1/2 cup heavy cream; 2 tablespoons parmesan cheese (grated); 2 ½ - 3 teaspoons lemon juice (adjust to taste); Furikake, shredded nori, or fresh chives (optional for garnish)

This garlicky Miso Mushroom Pasta is the only pasta dish you need if you want to impress! Toss bouncy chewy noodles in a rich creamy miso sauce with golden seared shiitake mushrooms, sweet caramelized onions, and freshly grated parmesan cheese for subtle nuttiness. It’s luxuriously velvety, umami-packed, and unbelievably easy to throw together!

Miso mushroom pasta with shredded parmesan on a white brown rimmed plate.

This mushroom miso pasta is how to make any meal (yes, including weeknights!) feel fancy – without actually doing anything fancy! I’ve collabed my Creamy Miso Pasta recipe with my Miso Butter Mushrooms recipe to create a lusciously decadent pasta that’s the ultimate comfort food!

It’s rich and buttery like my Cheesy Pull Apart Garlic Bread with Miso, but with slippery chewy noodles! Use up extra miso paste to make a full meal by slathering it on salmon and making pan-fried Miso Butter Salmon or a gingery Air Fried Miso Salmon!

🎥 Video: Watch How to Make the Recipe

🥘 Ingredients

Noodles: Grab good ol’ spaghetti noodles! Nothing fancy here, but feel free to swap it out for any of your fave dried pasta noodles (bucatini, linguine, rigatoni, etc). Udon noodles would be delicious too! Just double the noodle weight amount in the recipe when using pre-cooked noodles because dried noodles (like the spaghetti in this recipe) double in size/weight after boiling.
Miso Paste: This fermented soybean paste is the star of the sauce! We’re using white miso pasta for this miso sauce recipe because it’s milder in flavor and blends beautifully with the nutty parmesan and seared shiitake mushrooms! Speaking of which…
Mushrooms: Shiitake mushrooms are what I use for its bold savory flavor and meaty texture! Look for mushrooms without bruising or discoloration, and with dry light colored gills under mushroom caps because these mean they’re fresh.
Sake: THIS is what’s going to make your sauce taste restaurant quality! It’s a Japanese cooking wine commonly used to enhance the flavors in sauces (like in Mentaiko Pasta) and marinades (like in Teriyaki Chicken or Teriyaki Salmon). We’ll deglaze the pan after sauteeing the sweet onions to infuse the sauce with those browned bits! We’re laying flavor here!
Dashi Powder: This is my other secret to packing in more umami to any of your foods! This Japanese soup stock is like chicken bouillon so you buy it once, keep it in your pantry, and sprinkle it into any food that needs extra umami (like Korean Steamed Eggs or Tteokbokki)!
Unsalted Butter: Butter gives the miso sauce a velvety finish but grab the unsalted kind! There’s enough saltiness in the rest of the dish (miso, dashi powder, & soy sauce)!
Heavy Cream: This creates richness & creaminess for the base of our sauce.
Parmesan: Freshly grated parm is definitely the fancied thing in this meal. It adds nutty notes and helps thicken up the sauce!

For full ingredient list & measurements, see recipe card below.

🔪 How to Make Miso Mushroom Pasta

Step 1: Boil Noodles & Mix Dashi Stock. In a large pot, boil salted water & pasta according to package directions. Remember to reserve some of the pasta water! Then drain the noodles and set aside.

Whisk together the reserved pasta water with the dashi powder until it’s dissolved, then set aside with the noodles.

Step 2: Cook Mushrooms. Heat a large pan or skillet on medium, add mushrooms to the dry pan and cook for 8-10 minutes, or until golden and fragrant.

Step 3: Cook Aromatics. Add butter and onions then sauté for about 5-10 minutes, or until soft and golden. Stir occasionally so they don’t burn. Pour in the light soy sauce along the edges of the pan to create a char, then quickly mix until the onions have absorbed the soy sauce.

Toss in garlic, cook for a few seconds, then pour in sake to deglaze the pan. Use your wooden spoon or spatula to scrape any browned bits in the pan – that’s that good stuff! Cook for about a minute to cook off the alcohol.

Dashi stock reduced with mushrooms and onions in a pan.

Step 4: Reduce Dashi Stock. Pour in the dashi stock and cook for another 10 minutes or until the stock has reduced by half, stirring occasionally so the mushrooms and aromatics don’t burn.

Creamy miso mushroom pasta sauce in a pan.

Step 5: Finish Miso Sauce. Stir in miso paste until it dissolves, then pour in heavy cream and sprinkle in parmesan cheese. Continue to stir until the cheese dissolves and reduce the heat if needed so the sauce doesn’t boil, otherwise, you may create a grainy sauce!

Fork twirling mushroom miso pasta on a white brown rimmed plate on a beaded placemat.

Step 6: Toss Noodles in Miso Sauce. Toss the pasta into the miso sauce until well combined. Turn off heat, spritz with fresh lemon juice, give a final few tosses, then transfer to a serving plate with extra lemon wedges.

If you’re feeling fancy, garnish with furikake, shredded nori, or chives. Enjoy!

👩🏽‍🍳 Key Tips

Cook Pasta Al Dente: When boiling the pasta, I like to cook it al dente then finish cooking it in the miso sauce so it can absorb all that delicious flavor!
Dry Sear Mushrooms: Mushrooms are like sponges, so if you cook them in oil, they’ll continue to soak it up and get extremely oily! It’s best to cook them in a dry pan to release their excess moisture then they’ll eventually brown. I found this to be the best way to get the best flavor! Well… next to adding butter, which is the next step in the recipe hehe.
Add Lemon at the End: This miso sauce is absolutely DELICIOUS, but can also feel heavy without a spritz of lemon juice to balance the richness of the creamy and saltiness of the miso. Add the lemon juice at the end once you’ve turned off the heat so the bright flavor doesn’t get cooked off.

Miso mushroom pasta with shredded parmesan on a white table.

💭 Recipe FAQs

Allow the miso butter pasta to come to room temperature then transfer to an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.

To reheat, add a small splash of water to loosen the sauce, cover, and heat in the microwave until warm. Mix to cream up the sauce with noodles, then enjoy!

As long as the miso paste has been stored properly sealed in the fridge and used with clean utensils, miso paste can last a long time. If the miso paste gets contaminated with (for example) spoons with other food, it can introduce mold.

Use your senses to check though – it shouldn’t be sour or have mold.

🥢 More Miso Recipes You’ll Loves

Love miso?? Same. Let’s jump into the miso sparkled rabbit hole together, shall we?

Miso Butter. Slather it, melt it, stir-fry it, toss it—basically put it on anything that needs an instant upgrade. Feeling veggies? Throw together Miso Butter Mushrooms with deeply caramelized and buttery flavors or switch things up with oven-roasted Miso Cauliflower that’ll make your broccoli jealous!

And let’s be honest—miso and salmon are made for each other. Think pan-fried Miso Butter Salmon for date-night vibes, Air-Fried Miso Salmon when you’re keeping it light, or go cozy with a steamy bowl of Miso Salmon Sinigang!
Annnnnd of course, we can’t forget the carbs! Gooey, stretchy, Cheesy Pull Apart Garlic Bread with Miso that always has everyone at the party say, “omgggg GIMMEE!”

🥗 More Easy Recipes You’ll Love!

Let’s get cooking!

Get into my secret stash of Goody-Packed Newsletters with meals planned for you & time-saving tips! Want step-by-step videos of how to make my recipes too? I gotchu over at my youtube channel. Aight, enough chatting, more eating!