Rich and hearty, you will never guess this mushroom pasta sauce has no meat. Big umami flavors from the mushroom and tomatoes plus lots of fresh herbs makes for a delicious pasta sauce over any type of pasta. I make double batches and freeze it in jars, always handy for a quick and satisfying dinner. Love mushrooms? You'll love this sauce.
Cleaning out the vegetable drawer I ended up with three big bunches of parsley. Fresh, fluffy, green, organic Italian parsley. It was too good to be ignored, allowed to wilt away and get tossed. How to use it? Making my favorite mushroom pasta sauce. Parsley is for more than garnishes! A food processor makes quick work of chopping the parsley and slicing the mushrooms.
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Why You'll Like This Recipe
- A hearty, meaty sauce for pasta without meat.
- Make it ahead and freeze it.
- Full of mushrooms, herbs, and tomatoes, for big flavors.
An added benefit, parsley is good for you! For your immune system, digestion and more.
Recipe Ingredients
Parsley is often relegated to the role of supporting actor as simple garnish. In this recipe, parsley plays a foundational role for my mushroom and herb pasta sauce. The parsley lends fresh herbal flavor to this meatless but meaty-tasting sauce filled with mushrooms, tomatoes, garlic, onion, celery and herbs.
- Olive oil: For flavor and sautéing.
- Parsley: Use Italian parsley, curly parsley, or a combination. Be sure it's really fresh and bright green.
- Onion: The flavorful, aromatic base for soups, sauce, and many dishes. White, brown, or yellow onions.
- Celery: Helps develop a savory depth of flavor.
- Garlic: A must for flavorful pasta sauce. Fresh is best but the tube in a tube is pretty good.
- Mushrooms: Buy either common white mushrooms or brown mushrooms.
- Tomatoes: Both canned crushed tomatoes and tomato puree.
- Dried herbs: dried basil and dried oregano, or use a dried Italian herb blend.
- Wine: Either dry red or dry white wine, or for no wine use water.
Please see the recipe card for measurements and salt, pepper and red pepper flakes.
Substitutions and Variations
- Use fresh herbs instead of the dried.
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Recipe Instructions
For faster prep work, a food processor comes in handy. If you have one but don’t use it much, here is your chance to put it to use. No food processor? Prep the vegetables by hand with a chef’s knife.
Step 1: Strip leaves from two to three large bunches of parsley, discarding the stems. Wash parsley leaves in cool water and dry on layers of paper towels, kitchen towels or in a salad spinner.
Step 2: Chop the parsley fine in a food processor with the steel knife. The trick is to drop the dry herbs in through the feed tube while the machine is running. If chopping by hand, totally dry herbs chop easier than wet or damp herbs.
Step 3: Add roughly chopped onion and celery to the parsley in the work bowl and pulse to chop, or chop buy hand. Remove to a medium bowl. Change out the food processor attachment to a slicing blade and slice the mushrooms. Remove the sliced mushrooms and add to the bowl.
Step 4: Once your prep work is done, the sauce is easy to complete by simmering the ingredients in a pot until thick and the flavors are melded together.
Serving Suggestions
Serve mushroom pasta sauce simply over pasta noodles for an easy, healthy dinner. It's tasty over spaghetti squash noodles too.
Use it to top stuffed pasta shells or over crisp chicken cutlets for a twist on my easy Chicken Parmesan. It’s a versatile sauce, and extra freezes well.
📖 Recipe
Mushroom Pasta Sauce
Equipment
- Food Processor or do it all by hand with a chef's knife.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 ½ cups finely chopped parsley leaves about 2 large, full bunches
- ½ medium onion chopped fine
- 3 celery ribs chopped fine
- 2-3 garlic cloves chopped fine
- 8 ounces white or brown mushrooms cleaned and thinly sliced
- 1 28 ounce canned crushed tomatoes
- 1 28 ounce canned tomato puree
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon salt kosher or sea
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon dried red pepper
- ½ cup dry red wine or white wine or water
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Instructions
- In a large pot, heat the oil over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the parsley, onion and celery. Cook until soft, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and cook for one more minute. Add the mushrooms, tomatoes, and herbs, salt, peppers and wine. Simmer covered until all of the flavors are incorporated, about 40 – 45 minutes. If it gets too thick, add a little water to thin it to your preference. Serve mushroom pasta sauce over pasta of choice. Extra keeps in an airtight container for up to 5 days in the refrigerator or freezes well for several months.
LJP says
I think that parsley is a very underrated ingredient. I will try this v. soon!
Sally says
I love the sound of all that parsley--one of the few things that you can find all year round. I am definitely putting this on my list to make soon, especially when we want something lighter than the Bolognese sauce I squirrel away in the freezer for those emergency nights when I want something quick. Oh wait, that's most nights--I need this. I've used the Pomi diced tomatoes and prefer them to Muir Glen simply because they break down more easily, good for when you don't want discrete chunks of tomatoes that won't melt into the sauce.
Gloria says
I have mushrooms and parsley in the frigde. Your sauce looks delicious. Looking forward to trying this.
Cathy @What Would Cathy Eat? says
Wow, love the massive amount of parsley. I make marinara sauce all the time but want to try your version tonight! I will use Pomi tomatoes, as I stopped using canned tomatoes because of the BPA. (Muir Glen ones don't have BPA but I don't love them.)
Sally says
Hi Cathy. Yep, Muir Glen brand is what I used. I'm always careful too about BPA. Good tip on the Pomi. I'll have to try them. Thanks! Another good brand available in glass jars is Jovial.
Note for readers - If you are not familiar with BPA, it stands for Bisphenol A. BPA is an industrial chemical that has been used to make certain plastics and resins since the 1960s. It's often used in the linings of cans. There are many concerns about it. To read more, try this link.http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/bpa/AN01955