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This delicious Zucchini Mushroom Pasta is the ultimate vegetarian dinner recipe with loads of zucchini and mushrooms. It’s a restaurant-quality recipe that you can easily make at home with just 10 simple ingredients.
When it comes to making a vegetarian pasta recipe at home that’s loaded with flavor, this mushroom zucchini pasta is my first choice. It’s easy to make all year-round, but I especially love to serve this on summer nights when the produce is at its peak.
Early in my career I worked for Diabetic Living Magazine. And one of the biggest things we focused on was creating comfort food that wasn’t too heavy. The goal was to lighten up classic dishes without our readers feeling like they were sacrificing.
It’s challenging to strike the perfect balance, but over the years I’ve honed in on a few ingredients and techniques that make for really flavorful, but not too heavy, comfort food. And this pasta with zucchini and mushrooms is a great representation on those techniques.
Why You’ll Love this Mushroom Zucchini Pasta
There are so many reasons to love this pasta, here’s why it’s one of our favorites:
- Uses Up Leftover Veggies: When summer rolls around, our fridge is just filled with zucchini and corn, this zucchini and mushroom pasta is the ideal place to use up those veggies.
- Vegetarian Comfort Food: I promise you won’t miss the meat in this dish. Packed with rich flavors and hearty vegetables, this creamy pasta is vegetarian comfort food at its finest.
- 10 Ingredient Pasta: This is a restaurant-quality pasta recipe that uses just 10 simple ingredients. It’s simple to make and insanely delicious.
- Easy Elevated Pasta. For any beginner or expert cooks that are looking to level up their cooking at home, this pasta dish is one way to do it. It’s a gourmet pasta the whole family will love!
Lauren’s Tip
When it comes to choosing mushrooms for this pasta recipe, the options are endless. Oyster, shiitake, or maitake are all great options for their “meaty” texture. If you love baby bella those are delicious too. Not sure what to choose? Learn more about types of mushrooms.
Ingredients
- Zucchini: Fresh and abundant, zucchini is the ultimate summertime vegetable. Sauté it until tender, but avoid overcooking, or it’ll turn mushy.
- Mushrooms: Oyster, shiitake, or maitake work nicely here. All are earthy, hearty and add an umami flavor to the pasta. Use your favorite variety or whatever you have on hand.
- Olive Oil: The key to getting the mushrooms nicely roasted and browned. Make sure to toss them well with the oil so they get evenly golden. This is the ideal oil to sauté corn and zucchini in, too.
- Fresh Corn: Brings a nice sweetness and pop of color to the pasta.
- Garlic: The flavor we all love in a pasta recipe and pairs perfectly with mushrooms and zucchini.
- Dried Bucatini: We love bucatini here for it’s long shape and hollowed center to trap all of that rich sauce. You can use whatever pasta you have in your pantry too.
- Ricotta Cheese: Mild and creamy, this is the key ingredient for a rich sauce that’s still totally vegetarian too.
- Red Pepper Flakes: Gives a little spice to each bite! Add as much as you desire.
- Fresh Basil: Sweet and bright, fresh basil is the perfect herb to finish off this dish.
How To Make Zucchini Mushroom Pasta
- Preheat your oven to 475ºF with rack set in middle position.
- Toss the mushrooms with oil and season with and pepper. Then roast them until browned and tender, about 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium and add 2 teaspoons of olive oil and heat until shimmering (the oil should slightly dance). Add the corn and season with salt, then cook until vibrant in color, this will take about 7 minutes. Next, add the garlic and cook until starting to lightly toast, about 4 minutes. Scrape corn into a bowl and set aside to cool.
- Add 2 teaspoons olive oil to now empty pan over medium-high heat. Add the zucchini and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender and starting to brown, about 8 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Season generously with salt and add pasta; cook until al dente according to package instructions. Reserve 1 cup of the pasta cooking water then drain and set the pasta aside.
- Transfer ½ cup of the cooked corn to a blender along with ¼ cup of the pasta cooking water and 2 tablespoons of ricotta. Blend the sauce until smooth and be sure to season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Optional: In a small bowl, combine the remaining ricotta, lemon zest and red pepper flakes, and season with ¼ teaspoon salt.
- Add the cooked mushrooms (and all the crispy bits!) and cooked corn to the pan with the zucchini; stir to combine. Add the cooked pasta and the puréed corn sauce and gently toss together. Stir in half of the basil and juice of half a lemon over top. Transfer to a serving bowl and, if using, dollop ricotta mixture over top. Sprinkle with more basil and serve.
Tips for Making Zucchini Mushroom Pasta
- Roast the mushrooms until deep golden brown. Take the time to get a nice, even browning on your roasted mushrooms, this takes longer than you think! Here are some other key tips on how to cook mushrooms, and everything in between, too.
- Use Dried Mushrooms, like porcinis. If you’ve got dried mushrooms at home, simply rehydrate them in some hot water and use them in this pasta (skip the roasting). Oftentimes, expensive mushrooms like porcinis, are more affordable if you purchase them dried. You could even use a mix of fresh and dried.
- Don’t overcook zucchini or it will become mushy. Avoid overcooking the zucchini, it’ll get watery and soggy. Simply sauté until it’s tender and starting to brown, this won’t take long.
- Reserve the pasta cooking liquid. This step is so important. It’s the required ingredient for making a silky sauce and it’s how all professional cooks make pasta as well.
- Don’t overcrowd the baking sheet when roasting mushrooms. This will cause them to steam rather than brown. Be sure there is enough space.
Storing Ricotta Mushroom Pasta
Like most pastas, this dish is best served and enjoyed immediately after making it, but if you do have leftovers, here’s how we’d suggest storing them:
Store leftover pasta in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to five days.
Reheat gently on the stove in a skillet over medium heat until warmed through, or in the microwave, stirring periodically. You will likely need a splash of water to make it saucy again.
I really don’t recommend freezing any pasta, as it changes the texture of the noodles and the sauce, but if you’re in a pinch, just know that once it’s thawed and reheated, the color of the veggies and texture of the pasta might be slightly off (but still tasty!).
Mushroom Zucchini Pasta FAQs
You can really use any type of mushroom, or a mix of a few mushrooms, when making pasta. Cremini, white button, shiitake, oyster and maitake are all popular, widely available and delicious.
You could add spinach or peas for great fresh flavor. Any other roasted veggies would go nicely here too—bell peppers, red onions, carrots and eggplant would all be delicious.
When you’re cooking your mushrooms, don’t overcrowd the pan. This goes for both roasting and sauteing them—if the pan is too crowded, they’ll steam instead of brown.
Drain the pasta when it’s reached al dente and still has a slight bite to it. Look for the time on the package instructions.
We love ricotta here to make the light yet creamy sauce. Parmesan or pecorino are two other great options for a salty bite.
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Zucchini Mushroom Pasta
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Ingredients
- 8 ounces oyster, shiitake, or maitake mushrooms
- 7 teaspoons olive oil, divided
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 ears sweet corn, shucked and kernels cut from cob
- 3 cloves garlic, sliced
- 12 ounces zucchini (about 1 large or 2 small) cut into ¼-inch thick half moons
- 4 ounces dry bucatini
- ½ cup ricotta cheese, divided
- ½ lemon, zested
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ¼ cup thinly sliced fresh basil leaves
Instructions
- Heat oven to 475ºF (246ºC) with rack set in middle position.
- Toss 8 ounces mushrooms with 1 tablespoon olive oil and season with ¼ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper.
- Roast mushrooms, rotating halfway through, until browned and tender, about 30 minutes. Set aside.
- Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium. Add 2 teaspoons olive oil and heat until shimmering. Add corn (cut from 2 ears of corn) and season with salt; cook until vibrant in color, 6–8 minutes. Add 3 sliced cloves garlic and cook until starting to lightly toast, about 4 minutes, (add a splash of water if pan gets dry). Scrape corn into a bowl and set aside to cool.
- Add 2 teaspoons olive oil to now empty pan over medium-high heat. Add 12 ounces sliced zucchini and season with ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender and starting to brown, 8–10 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Season generously with salt and add 4 ounces pasta; cook until al dente according to package instructions. Reserve 1 cup pasta water then drain and set pasta aside.
- Transfer ½ cup cooked corn to a blender along with ¼ cup pasta cooking water and 2 tablespoons ricotta; blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- In a small bowl, combine remaining ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons ricotta, grated zest of ½ a lemon, and ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes; season with ¼ teaspoon salt.
- Add cooked mushrooms (and all the crispy bits!) and cooked corn to pan with zucchini; stir to combine. Add cooked pasta and puréed corn sauce and gently toss to combine. Stir in half the basil and juice of half a lemon. Transfer to a serving bowl and dollop ricotta mixture over top. Sprinkle with basil and serve.
