Caramelized Onion and Portabella Pasta is a perfect and easy vegetarian pasta dinner that your family will love!
When it comes to cooking, sometimes I get ideas in my head and I cannot stop thinking about them. A few weeks ago on Pinterest, I saw a French Onion Soup pasta that looked delicious, but when I clicked on the recipe, it had heavy cream and an onion soup packet in the recipe, both things I try not to use ( I do love onion soup burgers though!). Every time I thought about what to make for dinner, I came back to the idea of a pasta with caramelized onions and a creamy broth as the sauce and this pasta is the result!
Let me tell you the most important thing about this dish, the sauce is SO good. It would be delicious poured over cardboard, I just can’t get enough of it. It is also very forgiving. The recipe became more of a throw this and that into the pot recipe, so please play around with it so that it suites your tastes!
I love having a few vegetarian dinners in my arsenal that we really love. It is so refreshing to skip the heavy meat and potatoes dinners every once in a while (although my husband may disagree) and just focus on light dishes that are full of flavor. If you realllyyyy need some meat with dinner, this meal would be excellent topped with some chicken off the grill.
Caramelized onions are one of my absolute favorite ingredients. I love to make a big batch and keep in the fridge to top burgers or steak, and now I will have to make sure to keep some around for this delicious Caramelized Onion and Portabella Pasta!
Caramelized Onion and Portabella Pasta
Caramelized Onion and Portabella Pasta
Ingredients
- Ingredients:
- 1 lb. whole wheat pasta
- 2 large yellow onions sliced
- 8 oz. baby portabella mushrooms or cremini mushrooms, washed, and cut with stems removed
- 1/2 cup beef broth use vegetable broth if you want this completely meatless
- 1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
- 3 gloves garlic minced
- 1 tsp. salt plus more to taste
- pepper to taste
- 2 tbsp. butter
- 3 tbsp. fat free half and half
- 1/4 cup of pasta water
- 4 oz. mozzarella cheese part skim
- Parmesan cheese
Instructions
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In a skillet, melt the two tablespoons of butter and then add the onions. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until they just begin to soften.
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Add half the beef broth (1/4 cup) and the Worcestershire sauce. Continue to cook the onions, stirring frequently, until very tender, and caramelized, about 15-20 minutes. If you taste your onions, and they are sweet, you know they are ready. The onions provide most of the flavor for this sauce, so please make sure they are definitely caramelized before moving on!
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Reduce the heat to low and then add the mushrooms and garlic cloves. Let cook together as you prepare the pasta. Right before you drain the pasta, add your half and half to the sauce and stir well. Do not add it any sooner because due to the low fat content, it can easily curdle.
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In a separate pot, cook your pasta according to directions.
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Once pasta is ready, drain well, reserving 1/4 cup of the pasta water.
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Add your pasta and the liquid to your sauce mixture. The starchy cooking liquid helps thicken the sauce. Stir well and then season to taste.
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Add a few shakes of your Parmesan cheese to taste as well. Add half the mozzarella to the pot and stir to melt. Place pasta in your serving bowls and garnish with the other half of the mozzarella.
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Enjoy!
Note: The picture of the recipe here has spinach in it. I don’t think the spinach really added anything to the recipe, so I decided to omit.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who has these rogue recipe thoughts! I’m pinning in order to tantalize other pinterest users muah hahahaha
Haha! I love that! I will definitely refer to my food obsessions as rogue recipe thoughts now!
Wow this pasta dish sounds amazing! I think I just found what I am making for dinner tonight 🙂 Checking this great recipe out from Tasty Tuesdays! I love the whole wheat pasta, fat free half and half, mushrooms and caramelized onions! Pinned!
Cathy
I hope you made it for dinner and enjoyed it!
Pasta, caramelized onions, and mushrooms–three of my favorite things! This sounds fantastic! Pinning!
Visiting from Worthwhile Wednesdays.
You had me at portbello….. And then you had to add all that other yummy stuff…. I am pinning this recipe….!!! I L-O-V-E mushrooms…. Thanks so much for your awesomeness!! 🙂
“hugs” Crystelle
Crystelle Boutique
Your website is very interesting and there were some recipes I would have liked to make. You have serious technical problems on the site though. Without sitting in the kitchen next to my laptop to cook, there was no way to print out or highlight, etc. I’m not going to pin it before I make it….
Sorry about that! All of my more recent recipes now have a printable version option. I just updated this pasta recipe for you so that you can easily print it! I am working on converting all of my recipes to the printable versions. Please let me know which others you are interested in and I will be sure to add the print feature to them ASAP!