This delicious mushroom marsala pasta bake with sliced mushrooms, marsala wine, chopped mozzarella, and fresh Italian parsley is so creamy and flavorful.
You know those nights where you’re just in the mood for a pasta bake type dish?
And, by pasta bake, I mean, a comfort food, something cheesy with lots of greasy sauce, and cooked so there’s a slight crisp to the top of the noodles.
Well, that’s the mood I was in today on this cool, crisp Fall day.
I have tried so many pasta bake dishes over the years, but never one like this mushroom marsala pasta bake.
The sauce is made with marsala wine, melted butter, and chicken stock. The sauce blends so well with the sliced mushrooms and chopped onions. Mixed in with the tube pasta (I used mostaccioli), and cubed mozzarella, and you have an unexpected treat for dinner.
Before this dish, I associated a pasta bake to mean tomato sauce, and lots of shredded mozzarella. Not anymore. This will now be my go to pasta bake.
Tips for this delicious mushroom marsala pasta bake:
- This recipe is for a pasta bake vegetarian style, however you could add in sliced sausages and make it a pasta bake sausage style. The sausage would be yummy with the mushrooms and onions.
- I added freshly shredded parmesan cheese, and chopped Italian parsley on top, adding nice texture to the pasta below.
- You will use less pans if you utilize an oven safe dish to cook the pasta and sauce. A dutch oven or an oven safe dish with lower sides would work well. I used my dutch oven for cooking the pasta and making the sauce, but transferred the mixture to a 13×9 baking dish (I doubled the recipe) for the baking. I wanted to serve it in my ceramic baking dish. If you’re making the recipe as is, a 9×9 baking dish would work well.
I love stove to oven dishes, and plan on making this one again soon.
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Mushroom Marsala Pasta Bake
This delicious mushroom marsala pasta bake with sliced mushrooms, marsala wine, chopped mozarella and fresh Italian parsley is so creamy and flavorful.
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb cooked and drained pasta (mostaccioli, ziti, rotini etc..)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 3/4 lbs fresh cremini mushrooms, sliced
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup dry marsala wine
- 3 tbsp butter, unsalted
- 3 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups chicken stock or broth (vegetable or mushroom is fine too)
- 1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese for topping
- 4 oz mozzarella, cut into small cubes
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Using the pot you used to cook your pasta, reheat the pot over high heat and add olive oil. Once the oil is hot, add mushrooms and cook until they are beginning to brown and are glistening.
Reduce the heat to medium high and add onions, salt and pepper. Sauce the mushrooms, onions and salt and pepper until the liquid produced from the mushrooms has evaporated.
At this point, add in the Marsala wine and cook the mixture for about 3 minutes, or until almost evaporated.
Add the butter and stir until melted. Add in the flour and stir until the flour has been absorbed. Add the chicken stock, a little at a time. Make sure to stir the whole time with a wooden spoon. Ensure after each addition of stock, that it has been fully absorbed into the butter, flour, mushroom mixture.
After adding in all of the stock, let the mixture simmer together for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Once the sauce has thickened, remove the pan from the heat.
If you're using a large enough pan or an oven safe dish, add in the cooked pasta and stir until combined. If not, pour the mushroom/broth/flour mixture into a 2 quart baking dish and stir in half of the shredded parmesan and all of the mozzarella cubes. Stir in 2 tablespoons of the parsley until all ingredients are evenly mixed.
Bake for 25-30 minutes (until the top pasta pieces are slightly browned and a bit crispy). Sprinkle with the reserved parsley and parmesan cheese.
Enjoy!!
Recipe Notes
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen
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