This weekend, I had one thing on my mind: comfort food.
and tea. Lots of tea.
It’s probably not the proper thing for me to admit as a grown ass woman (sorry, it sounded much better than typing “adult”), but I absolutely love snow storms. They always bring me back to my childhood. I remember going to bed super excited and as soon as my eyes opened in the morning, I’d rush over to the window to peek out. Actually, come to think of it, I’d usually wake up in the middle of the night and peek out the window to “check on things”.
In the morning, I was either 1) super disappointed and let down by the weather man/woman or 2) CRAZY EXCITED because school was cancelled!
I bet you can guess how I felt waking up on Friday morning. I screamed to Eric, “let’s go play in the snow later!” As you can guess, he did not share my same enthusiasm.
We’ve had very little snowfall over the past few winters, so it was nice to get a good dose of snow for once. As a child growing up in the Maritimes, snow storms are in my blood. Don’t get me wrong, I’m counting down the days until spring, but sometimes a good snow day is just what you need to feel alive again.
Cozy weather called for clean-out-my-pantry comfort food. This pasta dish was thrown together based on what I had kicking around and it turned out good enough to share. The best part is, it came together in about 20 minutes or so. Easy comfort food…my favourite kind.
Quick and Easy Creamy Tomato Mushroom Pasta
Email, text, or print this recipe
Yield: 3 servings
Ingredients:
- 2-3 servings of pasta (I used fusili)
- 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 small sweet onion, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 8-oz sliced cremini mushrooms (2-3 cups sliced)*
- 1-1.5 cups canned diced tomatoes, to taste
- 3/4 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
- 1/4-1/3 cup nutritional yeast, to taste
- 1.5 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1/4 tsp dried thyme
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
- 1/2 tsp fine grain sea salt, or to taste
1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add in your pasta and cook until Al dente, about 7-10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, heat a large skillet or wok over medium heat. Sauté the garlic and onion in the olive oil for about 5 minutes, or until translucent.
3. Stir in the sliced mushrooms and diced tomato and cook for another 8-10 minutes or so over medium-high heat, until some of the water cooks off.
4. Stir in the fresh basil, nutritional yeast, tomato paste, oregano, thyme, red pepper flakes. Add salt to taste. Simmer for another 5 minutes or so and adjust seasonings to taste if desired.
5. Drain pasta and add back into the pot. Stir in the pasta sauce, heat, and serve immediately with Cheezy Garlic Bread if you’d like.
I was excited to find out over the weekend that I’ve been nominated for the best Healthy Cooking Blog award over on The Kitchn. If you enjoy Oh She Glows and think my blog is worthy of such an award, I would love your vote of support! You can sign in with Twitter, Facebook, or if you have one, your Kitchn account. Be sure to check out the other categories too.
Looking at these photos is making me cold!!! But your pasta looks amazing!!!
This looks so yummy. Pasta is such a great comfort food plus the mushrooms add a nice meaty flavor! This looks like a great recipe.
Glad you’re excited for the snow still! We’ve had a ton of it (out in Western Canada) and I’ll gladly trade you :) The worst is having to go to work after a big snowstorm like the one you guys got.
That recipe loks delicious!
So excited to make this. I’ll probably leave out the oil since I don’t eat it anymore. I’m SO excited to see the sauce is home made.
Just found your blog this week, via an old post for a chocolate cake! I love snow storms too, I was giddy when we got the latest snow storm here in Toronto…
I am going to try this pasta, it looks so good. I wondered, the dish you are serving it in, looks vintage and lovely, what is it?
Thanks!
I will be following your blog for sure from now on!
I’m glad you’re enjoying the blog! The plate is from Anthro. I buy a few blog dishes from there now and then.
I will infidelity have to try this recipe, right up my alley! Fresh basil and tomatoes are divine.
I voted for you on the weekend :) Good luck!
Made this tonight. Thumbs up from DH. Adding it to my menu plan for next week. So easy, cheap and tasty.
Is there a way to vote for ohsheglow without giving them your facebook info? This is actually the only site I “like” on FB but I disabled the platforms thing after too much personal info of mine went online. And I don’t have a Twitter account or I’d vote with that. Okay how to do this haha and murshroom pasta looks great
Okay haha I made a Kitchn account (whatever the hell that is) and voted for ohsheglow…hopefully more people who comment here vote soon so don’t get creamed by Civilized Cavemen Cooking, which I never even HEARD of that so why is it winning
I have been loving brown rice pasta it’s gluten free and tastes so yummy! Ill def have to try this out recipe out :) thanks!
I just love a good, simple pasta dinner on snowy days! The tomatoes and crimini mushrooms add so much flavour and texture to this dish, I can almost taste it! Thanks for sharing…
-Shannon
I made this last night for Valentine’s Day, adding in some white beans for protein, and it was delicious! Definitely a keeper!
I made this last week and it was so delicious. I plan on making it again tomorrow for my family (about 8 adults and 3 kids). If I doubled it, would I double everything….spices, herbs and all? I always question that when I’m doubling. Thanks so much!
^ I’m not Angela obviously [I’m an INdian vegan girl in LA who reads her blog a lot] but anyways I cook a lot and whenever I double a recipe, I just double everything in it, spices, herbs, seasonings etc…seems to work out fine:)
That’s a good question! Sometimes this approach can work, and other times not (when doubling spices). I would add them to taste and then you can’t go wrong. Enjoy!
I doubled it and it was fantastic! Everyone loved it…I made a yummy salad with your better than bottled balsamic and they raved about everything…I had to email them with your recipes! I used the quinoa, amaranth and brown rice pasta from Costco…..nobody even knew it was gluten free! Thanks for all your inspiration!!
Angela,
Do you have any advice for those wanting to use fresh tomatoes when the recipe calls for canned, diced? Canned are much more convenient but when I do have extra time, I often think of trying fresh. I’m a novice (on a budget!) in the kitchen so I’m worried of completely ruining a recipe.
Either way, can’t wait to try this out!
I’m not really sure, I think it would be a guessing game when subbing! There might be a guide somewhere online though :)
Made this this weekend and it was great! Added cut up fresh asparagus and we loved it…looking forward to leftovers tonight with a big salad!
This looks lovely. I love mushrooms and pasta. Oh man, now I am starving.
Would this be ok with dried basil instead of fresh? I cant find any fresh basil here right now at all. I love your blog, by the way! Thanks for all the great recipes.
This dish has a lot of fresh basil so it would be difficult to impact the same flavour using dried. That being said, it still might come out tasting good so you are welcome to try it.
Thanks for replying! I’ll let you know how it turns out if I try the dried basil.
Ok, I just made this and it was so good. I made a few changes to accommodate what I had. I used white mushrooms vs cremini. Used 1 tsp of dried basil vs fresh. Omitted red pepper(I have lil ones) and blended sauce ingredients in my vita mix. Sauteed the mushrooms and red onion in saute pan then added sauce and let me tell ya, I will never ever buy store bought sauce again! It was delish! 4 yr old approved too! Thanks for another awesome recipe! Don’t think I’ve ever had a failed one yet from your site!! When is your cookbook coming out again???
Dear Angela and the Oh She Glows community:
Owing to severe newly developed allergies and ongoing difficult to treat mood/female hormone issues, I am considering a vegan-based diet for myself.
What are nutritional yeast and nutritional yeast flakes used for in vegan recipes? Have they been known to cause allergies?
Also, do most vegan-protein sources come from soy-based products?
OMG, this looked so good, I had to try it. I pinned it for later. Well later was today. It was so good. I’m still experimenting with nutritional yeast. This is a winner for sure. What I really liked about this recipe is that it was super simple to make. Thanks so much for sharing. :)
I just made this recipe….outstanding! I just went plant based and you are one of my go to blogs for inspiration. Thank you so much!!
Thank you Julie, I appreciate that so much! I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it.
I never thought of adding nutritional yeast to pasta- great idea! Thanks for the great recipe!
Hi Angela,
Here in NYC the snow is beginning to fall, which means I’m absolutely staying put indoors and need some comfort food of course! Since I’m making this so last-minute and don’t have a chance to do a grocery store run, do you think I could replace the nutritional yeast that I don’t currently have with half an avocado to obtain the creaminess I’m craving? Or might flour work better?
Thanks, cannot wait to try!
Very good!
Added Gimmie Lean sausage for us fakers
I made this last night and used spaghetti squash. I also made the vegan parmesan cheese that you list on another recipe. We love it!. It tasted like a fattening dish! I am impressed with this site. I will use it often.
I’ve been reading your blog every day since I found it through 86lemons sometime last week. I think I’ve made something from your blog almost every day for the past week or so. Every meal has been a hit! I decided to make this one tonight as I’ve looked at it for the past couple days. I had to make some tweaks as I stupidly bought basil in a tube as I thought it would be easier. Just as I was about to put the basil in the sauce I decided to look at the ingredients, good thing I did because there is actually whey in there – who knew! Fresh is definitely the way to go. I put extra red pepper flakes in its place and it was still amazing.Thank you so much for all of your recipes. It sure has made the switch to a vegan lifestyle a lot easier,
Hey Rose, Welcome to the blog. I’m happy that you found me through Livvy, she is great. Enjoy the recipes!
Do you now the nutritional value of this meal? Can’t wait to make it
Yum and easy!
This is the first recipe I’ve made from your website and…WOW!!!!!! it’s absolutely delicious!!!! I love the creamy texture of the sauce!!!!! when you say 2-3 servings of pasta,do you measure the pasta before or after cooking it? I’m trying to watch calories so I’m trying to figure out what a serving would be :) thx!!
I usually measure it before cooking. So glad you enjoyed it!
This dish is delicious! I have a 6 week old baby (as well as two other kids) so quick and easy meals are a must right now. This one fits the bill. Everybody in the family loves it. I make it weekly.thanks Angela!
This is so delicious and ridiculously easy. Love how creamy it is. Thanks so much for sharing.
Just made this for dinner with whole grain pasta. Very good! I bought a container of nutritional yeast a few months ago and have been struggling to use it up. I’ll be adding this to my regular rotation for sure. Thanks!
I make this regularly for my family and we all love it. I sometimes substitute zuchinni for the mushrooms, especially at this time of year when I have more zuchinni than I know what to do with! Quick an deasy to make, very baby and kid friendly :)
I made this today, because I am working 43 hrs over the 3 days and need the carbs. It was quick and yummy.
Made this for dinner tonight. My 2 kids ages 1 and 3 ate it all up as well as my husband who doesn’t even like mushrooms. It was perfect. Its a family recipe now. :)
I just made this tonight with zucchini and chickpeas because I did not have mushrooms on hand. I really enjoyed it! It was easy and very tasty. thank you!
I made this for dinner tonight and it was AMAZING!!! :) I love your website!!
I haven’t been able to find a good way to use nutritional yeast until now: this dish is AMAZING ! After being vegetarian for seven years I just became vegan about a month ago, so I just wanted to say that your website has been such a helpful resource for me to find good dinner/snack recipes. Thank you. :)
Just finished this dish; filling, delicious, and I had all the ingredients already in my cupboard/fridge! I’m newly vegan, and I don’t know what I would do without your recipes! Keep them coming, and thank you :)
Simple and delicious! My vegan and non-vegan family members both loved it!
I am a student in Scotland and i’m currently cooking this for my flatmate! I used loads of basil because we’re both big fans of that herb, and i’m serving it with wholewheat pasta. The recipe says it serves 3, but really it serves one normal vegan [me] and one ravenous weirdo [my flatmate].
It tastes just as good as it looks and is currently filling my kitchen with the most wonderful smell!
Big thanks for this quick, easy, cheap and delicious recipe. :)
I made this dish for Valentine’s Day this year, and the SO loved it so much that when we had company a few days later, I made it again! No one who came over was vegan, but they were all impressed with this dish– most of them had seconds! Needless to say, there were no leftovers. But this was so easy to make, I think I’m going to do it again sometime soon! This sauce tastes amazing when paired with Trader Joe’s vegetable rotelle, too!
Made this for supper tonight, and it was another winner (no surprise there!).
Hi! This recipe looks great, but I live in Germany at the moment and haven’t been able to find nutritional yeast here :( Any ideas for a substitution?
This looks amazing! Can anyone tell me exactly how much of a 16 oz bag of fusilli pasta they used to make this? :)
Can I make the sauce a day ahead?
Hi Darleen, I haven’t tried making it the day before, but I think it should be fine. The only thing I would try if doing it myself is to leave out the fresh basil when making it in advance (I worry that its flavours may dissipate overnight?), and stir it in just after reheating. I hope this helps!
Good every time.