Roasted mushrooms add a delicate meatiness to this mushroom-beef pasta sauce that is equal parts earthy, spicy, and acidic. This spicy roasted mushroom sauce will be your new favorite weeknight pasta recipe.
Who doesn’t love a filling, easy-to-prepare weeknight pasta recipe? This mushroom-beef pasta sauce loads up on two types of mushrooms. Roasting them first lends a deep, earthy flavor to the sauce.
What kind of mushrooms should I use?
Use your favorite mushroom in this pasta sauce recipe. I kept it simple with a mix of baby bella and shiitake. Try it with any variety of mushrooms you like. Maitake or oyster would be a great starting place, but beech or even king trumpet mushrooms would work perfectly in this mushroom-beef pasta sauce recipe.
If you prefer an array of mushroom textures in the sauce, slice, dice, or tear the mushroom, depending on the variety. You can skip blitzing the mushrooms in the food processor if you go this route. Maitake and oyster mushrooms taste great when they’re torn and crisp up around the edges. King trumpets are amenable to being shredded and add a delicious textural contrast.
How to make this mushroom-beef pasta sauce recipe:
First, roast all the vegetables on a big baking sheet. Once they’ve roasted, blitz them in a food processor.
While the veggies roast, start the sauce. Fry up the ground beef and then add tomato paste. Once the paste deepens in color, deglaze the pot with red wine. You can also use water or beef stock.
From there, add tomatoes and simmer the sauce for at least 30 minutes.
Finish the sauce by folding in the chopped, roasted veggies and simply tossing it with your favorite pasta. I prefer tubular pasta for this dish, like rigatoni or calamarata, but it would also work well with pappardelle!
Mushroom-Beef Pasta Sauce
Equipment
- Baking sheet
- Food processor
- 2 Large pots
Ingredients
- 16 ounces short tubular pasta (such as calamarata, rigatoni, or ziti)
- 8 ounces baby bella mushrooms scrubbed and left whole
- 8 ounces shiitake mushrooms stems removed and caps left whole
- 1 yellow onion peeled and halved
- 6 cloves garlic peeled
- 1–2 red Fresno chili peppers stems removed, optional
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound ground beef
- Onion and garlic powder to taste
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- ¼ cup red wine
- 1 28- ounce can of tomato purée
- 1 14.5- ounce can fire-roasted crushed tomatoes
- 1 cup reserved pasta cooking water
- Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano optional
Instructions
Roast the vegetables:
- Arrange mushrooms, onion, garlic, and red Fresno peppers on a baking sheet. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
- Transfer to the oven and roast for 30 minutes or until the peppers have begun to blister and the vegetables are turning dark brown. Remove from the oven, transfer to a food processor, and pulse until finely chopped. Set aside.
Start the sauce:
- While the mushrooms are roasting, prepare the sauce. Place a large pot on the stovetop and turn the heat to medium-high. Add the ground pork and beef and cook, breaking up the meat with a spoon, for 15 minutes or until well-browned all over.
- Season with salt, pepper, and a few shakes of onion and garlic powder to taste. Carefully drain off any excess fat and return the pot to medium-high heat.
- Once the meat has begun to turn dark brown and crisp up in some places, add the tomato paste and stir to combine. Allow to cook for 2-3 minutes or until the paste has begun to deepen in color. Add ¼ cup red wine and scrape up any browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pot.
- Stir in the puréed and crushed tomatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30-40 minutes. Taste and season with salt, pepper, garlic or onion powder, or a pinch of sugar if the tomatoes are too acidic.
Cook the pasta:
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta according to the package instructions. Reserve 1 cup of pasta cooking water before draining the pasta.
Finish the sauce:
- Stir the finely chopped roasted vegetables into the sauce along with the pasta cooking water. Toss the sauce with the pasta* and cook for 2-3 minutes to allow the sauce to coat the pasta. Turn off the heat.
To serve:
- Divide the pasta between bowls and sprinkle with freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, if desired. Enjoy!
