This is one of those dishes where my 6-year-old will yell from upstairs, “Mommy, what are you making?!? It smells sooooo good down there!” That girl loves to eat good food, and I love to make it, which makes us a perfect match. This recipe is also the only time I’ve ever seen my 8-year-old actually eat mushrooms and somewhat enjoy them. See, even though I know she “doesn’t like” mushrooms, I make them anyway and just try to serve them different ways in different dishes. And once in a blue moon, all that hard work pays off when they eat (and enjoy) something new – score!
Weeknight Mushroom and Kale Pasta
Ingredients
- 8 ounces whole-wheat pasta, boiled and drained according to pasta directions
- 1 ounce mushrooms, dried
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 shallots, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ cup white wine
- 2 cups kale, with big stems removed and cut into strips
- ¾ cup heavy cream
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- pepper, to taste
- 1/3 cup parmesan cheese, freshly grated
Instructions
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In a small pot, add the dried mushrooms and cover with water (minimum of 1 ½ cups). Bring to a boil and cook until the mushrooms have softened, about 3 to 4 minutes. Drain while reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid. Dice the cooked mushrooms (I do this by using culinary scissors).
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In a sauté pan over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the shallots, mushrooms, and garlic to the pan and cook while stirring for 2 to 3 minutes.
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Pour in the white wine and turn up the heat so the mixture comes to a boil. Cook until the wine almost completely boils off, about 3 to 4 minutes (if you are doubling this recipe, it will take longer).
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Pour in the 1 cup of the reserved mushroom cooking liquid and cook until reduced by half.
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Turn the heat back down to medium and add the heavy cream, kale, salt, and pepper to the pan. Cook until the sauce thickens, 2 to 3 more minutes. Fold in the noodles, garnish with Parmesan, and serve.
Recipe Notes
We recommend organic ingredients when feasible.
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Andrea @Butter is Better
August 6, 2014 at 8:34 pmI have to preface by saying my entire family sort of dislikes kale, but somehow this dish has been made (and devoured!) over and over again in my house! A real winner!
kristi
August 15, 2014 at 11:15 pmI just made this with fresh mushrooms and chicken broth for the liquid…it is so good! My 4 year old likes the mushrooms and kale! Thanks for the recipe..its one of the best things I’ve ever made!
Jess
September 9, 2014 at 8:08 pmThis recipe is missing from the recipe index. Good thing Bing found it, this one of our favorites!
Jess Johnson
November 13, 2014 at 2:32 pmThanks for adding it back in!
brandyb
November 21, 2014 at 10:00 amI have been wanting to try this, I had some leftover BEET GREENS that needed to be used, and this was just perfect!!! The whole family honestly LOVED it, and my littlest carnivore kept asking for more!!!
I only had a little bit of dried mushrooms, so I used those along with baby portabellas. I also didn’t have heavy cream, so I made a roux with flour and added milk/halfnhalf. This was amazing really!
Meg
December 16, 2014 at 11:03 amI assume there is an easy way to adjust this recipe so i can use fresh mushrooms instead. Can i try adding some chicken broth? if so, how much would you add?
Amy Taylor (comment moderator)
December 20, 2014 at 8:17 amHi Meg. We’ve not tried so it would be an experiment but I think it would turn out fine.
chantelle
December 29, 2014 at 7:31 pmI’m curious why your recipes call for dried mushrooms so often? They are very expensive in Canada ($8 for 25 grams!)
Amy Taylor (comment moderator)
January 8, 2015 at 2:56 pmHi Chantelle. Lisa likes both, actually and you can always use fresh mushrooms. :)
Jamie
January 4, 2015 at 4:58 amIs it okay to substitute frozen Kale for the fresh? Fresh Kale is virtually impossible to find here, however, our commissary has the frozen.
Amy Taylor (comment moderator)
January 5, 2015 at 1:49 pmHi Jamie. Frozen will work, too.
John Farless
January 6, 2015 at 7:16 pmThis was delicious! I used fresh crimini mushrooms and vegetable broth. Also substituted white onion for shallots (all I had).
Jen
January 16, 2015 at 2:06 pmI really wanted to love this, but we didn’t :( I wanted to have a weeknight dinner that didn’t have any meat and I thought this would satisfy my creamy craving for pasta which I never make. I don’t know if I didn’t let the wine evaporate enough, but the wine taste was too strong for me, my husband, and kids. They just ate the pasta. I even added bacon, hoping the bacon would add that yummy flavor. The mushrooms soaked up too much wine :( Maybe next time, I’ll just omit.
Nina
January 23, 2015 at 9:44 pmThis is one of my favorite recipes from this blog! My extremely picky 4 year old even loves it! i will definitely be adding this into the rotation.
Karla
March 4, 2015 at 9:09 pmLoved this. Made it tonight. Served to 8 year old daughter and 10 year old son. My son asked if he could take the leftovers for lunch tomorrow! Husband wasn’t a fan, but only because he tends not to favor most creamy pasta dishes.
This was delicious!!!! Thank you for posting on FB this week. It was my grocery shopping day so I was able to grab the dried mushrooms. YAY for a new recipe in my pocket!
Trudy
March 11, 2015 at 7:21 pmThis is absolutely delicious…..my husband, who is a meat lover, could not stop eating it!!! I used fresh mushrooms so used vegetable stock.
Tamara
March 16, 2015 at 10:10 pmI modified slightly but this is a big hit at our house!
Karen
February 1, 2016 at 11:02 amMade this last night and I was a little worry because it looked like it wasn’t turning out right. It turned out great! So Good! Ran out of kale this week but still had some spinach and used that instead. I’m currently participating in pledge and want to say thank you for all these awesome meal recipes!
Nora
February 5, 2016 at 12:11 pmHI,
Can i use fresh mushrroms instead of dried.? I have some on hand and have been using them for omelets and stuff.
Amy Taylor (comment moderator)
February 7, 2016 at 1:39 pmHi. You can. Another reader above added vegetable stock since you wouldn’t be adding the reserved mushroom stock.
Page Fulton
November 17, 2016 at 1:37 pmThis is incredible! Best easy creamy pasta recipe ever. I couldn’t find dried, so I used fresh mushrooms and Mushroom stock! I recommend adding some shredded deli ham or pre cooked salmon on top.
Jessica
January 10, 2018 at 10:16 amHello! Making this tonight using fresh mushrooms. I’m guessing I’d skip step 1 and just cook the fresh mushrooms with the onions in Step 2? Thanks! :)
Amy Taylor (comment moderator)
January 12, 2018 at 1:39 pmSorry that we can rarely answer recipe questions in real time. How did it turn out?