This buttery leek and mushroom pasta recipe is a super delicious, quick, and easy pasta dinner that I make often. Toss your favorite pasta in savory sauce with sweet corn, feta cheese, dried herbs, garlic, and olive oil.
Try this easy mushroom leek pasta topped with grilled chicken or shrimp scampi for a quick, flavorful vegetarian dinner.
This time of year in Indiana, there’s a farm stand with heaps of corn in every corner of the state. When I was testing out this recipe for a creamy but light leek and mushroom pasta, I loved that corn worked perfectly with the other flavors! This pasta with sautéed leeks and mushrooms has fresh Indiana corn and a silky butter sauce with garlic and herbs. Finish it off with a drizzle of olive oil and crumbly feta. It’s ready in under an hour!
Reasons To Love This Creamy Leek and Mushroom Pasta
- Light and meatless. This warm, cozy pasta with leeks and mushrooms is perfect for weeknight dinners. It’s vegetarian-friendly, with the option to add on proteins like chicken if you’d like.
- (Almost) one-pot pasta. Aside from boiling the pasta in a separate pot, this easy leek pasta comes together in a single skillet. Fewer dishes to clean is always the goal!
- Creamy, without cream. Like my garlic butter noodles, I toss the leek and mushroom pasta ingredients with a version of my favorite garlic butter sauce. It’s creamy from the butter, and it clings to the fettuccine perfectly.
Recipe Ingredients
Leeks have a mild, onion-like flavor that you might recognize from leek and potato soup. The leeks really shine in this pasta dinner, rounded out by a few key ingredients. Check out my quick notes here, and scroll down to the printable recipe card for the full amounts and recipe details.
- Pasta – I like to use fettuccine, tagliatelle, or linguine.
- Butter – Salted or unsalted. If you’d prefer to swap butter for olive oil, that works, too.
- Leeks – Select some good-looking leeks with fresh, crisp tops that aren’t droopy or yellow. You’ll use the white and green parts only. Wash your leeks well, and slice them into thin rounds.
- Mushrooms – I use white button mushrooms, but you could use creminis or a mix of any mushroom you have. Try oyster mushrooms for more variety.
- Corn – This can be frozen corn or fresh corn kernels shaved from leftover corn on the cob. If you’re using canned corn, be sure to drain and rinse it before you add it to the pasta.
- Garlic – Fresh cloves, minced. If you’re out of fresh garlic, use about ½ teaspoon jarred garlic or ¼ teaspoon garlic powder per clove.
- Dried Herbs – Dried thyme and Italian seasoning. You can substitute these with whatever you like to use. Fresh herbs are always a great choice, too.
- Olive Oil – Choose a good-quality extra virgin olive oil to finish the pasta and brighten the flavors. There’s really nothing better.
- Feta Cheese – Swap feta cheese with grated or shaved parmesan or goat cheese. Ricotta would also taste delicious in this pasta.
Choose the Best Pasta
This recipe makes a light, silky sauce similar to a carbonara or alfredo. For this reason, I suggest pairing it with long pasta shapes like fettuccine, spaghetti, linguine, tagliatelle, or angelhair pasta. However, anything goes! If you have penne or another pasta in your pantry, this will also work in your leek and mushroom pasta.
Tips and Variations You Can Try
- Add wine. A splash of white wine while sautéeing the leeks and mushrooms is a great way to deepen the flavors. I recommend a dry white, like Chardonnay or Pinot Grigio, to make leek and mushroom pasta with white wine sauce.
- Extra protein. Add grilled chicken, shrimp, or steak bites. Or, keep it vegetarian and add chickpeas.
- Make it vegan. Swap butter for vegan butter or olive oil to take this dish from vegetarian to vegan.
What To Serve With Leek Mushroom Pasta
This leek and mushroom pasta is perfect for Meatless Monday or a cozy weeknight dinner. Serve it with a fresh green salad, like this La Scala chopped salad copycat, and garlic breadsticks or focaccia. If you’re looking for a great wine pairing, I’d recommend a crisp Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, or an unoaked Chardonnay. Try a fudgy Nutella brownie for dessert!
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Cook the pasta. Cook the fettuccine according to the directions on the package.
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Sauté the leeks and mushrooms. In the meantime, heat butter in a large nonstick skillet. Add sliced leek, season with salt, and cook until slightly tender, about 3 to 4 minutes. Add mushrooms and continue to cook for 4 minutes or until tender.
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Put it all together. Stir in corn, garlic, and seasonings; continue to cook for 4 minutes. Drain pasta and add it to the skillet.
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Finish and serve. Add olive oil, toss to combine, and continue to cook until heated through. Remove from heat. Sprinkle with feta cheese, toss, and serve.
Calories: 448kcal | Carbohydrates: 59g | Protein: 17g | Fat: 17g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 0.3g | Cholesterol: 96mg | Sodium: 642mg | Potassium: 521mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 1225IU | Vitamin C: 9mg | Calcium: 249mg | Iron: 3mg
Nutritional info is an estimate and provided as courtesy. Values may vary according to the ingredients and tools used. Please use your preferred nutritional calculator for more detailed info.
How to Make Leek and Mushroom Pasta
This easy leek and mushroom pasta dinner is ready in less than an hour and only needs one skillet to make the garlicky sauce. Follow these steps:
- Cook the pasta. Boil the pasta al dente according to the directions on the package. If you’d like, set aside a ¼ cup of pasta water before you drain the noodles. You can add a splash of pasta water to the skillet with the pasta and veggies to enrich the sauce.
- Sauté the leeks and mushrooms. Meanwhile, melt butter in a skillet and sauté the sliced leek. After 3-4 minutes, add the mushrooms. Let that cook for another 4 minutes, or until tender.
- Season and cook. Next, stir in the garlic and herbs, and let the veggies cook and soak up all that flavor for another 5 minutes.
- Add the pasta. Now, drain the pasta and add it to the skillet right away. If you’d like, add a little pasta water to the pan and stir.
- Finish and serve. Drizzle the olive oil over the pasta, toss, and cook so everything is heated through. Sprinkle the feta on top once the pan is off the heat, and serve.
Storing and Reheating
- Refrigerate. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
- Reheat. Reheat this mushroom leek pasta gently with a splash of water to loosen the sauce.
