Do you like creamy pasta sauces but not all the calories associated with them? We’ve got you covered! This Lightened Creamy Mushroom Linguine with Spinach delivers creamy goodness without the guilt. Read on for details, or click here to jump down to the recipe
We love our pasta here, and are especially fond of pasta with a creamy sauce. It holds good memories for us, as this fettuccine dish was the first meal I cooked for Jodi. But you can’t make fettuccine with a heavy cream sauce too often as part of a healthy diet. Fortunately, we have a solution!
Making a Lighter Creamy Pasta Sauce
There are a few ways to make a lighter pasta sauce. In this Lightened Chicken and Broccoli Pasta, we skip the butter used in traditional version of the dish, and punch up the flavor with extra color and by roasting the broccoli. But today’s Lightened Creamy Mushroom Linguine with Spinach uses another trick.
The creamy base for today’s lightened pasta sauce is so simple to make. We simply puree half a container of silken tofu with some garlic, olive oil and parsley, and boom, we’ve got a creamy sauce without the guilt. This light creamy sauce can be easily made as you cook the pasta and sauté the mushrooms.
This pasta recipe is vegan if you skip the optional cheese topping, or use an alternative soy-based topping.
Wine Pairing for Lightened Creamy Mushroom Linguine
This cream pasta dish is pretty versatile in terms of wine pairings that could work with it. You could serve a medium to full bodied white wine with this creamy pasta sauce; or you could also go for a red wine such as Pinot Noir to pick up the earthiness of the mushrooms. We went with the white option when making this one.
We opened the 2014 Tenuta La Falcona Bianco Di Custoza ($13, 13% ABV), an Italian white wine from Valeggio, located between Verona and Lake Garda. This wine blends Garganega, Trebbiano, Cortese, Pinot Blanc, Chardonnay and Tocai Friulano. That’s a wide variety of traditional Italian and international grapes, but it all comes together nicely in the glass. I seem to have failed to take detailed pairing notes on this one, but know I like the bottle and was generally pleased with the pairing. We will be sure to make this dish and take better notes on the wine pairing, and report back with an update!
***WINE PAIRING UPDATE: I haven’t done an updated pairing lately, but Martin from ENOFYLZ Wine Blogreports that he enjoyed this Creamy Mushroom Linguine with a Languedoc red wine…I’ll have to try that!
Lightened Creamy Mushroom Linguine with Spinach Recipe
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Lightened Creamy Mushroom Linguine with Spinach
Creamy mushroom pasta dish without the guilt! Silken tofu provides the creamy texture, tossed with sautéed mushrooms and spinach.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Total Time: 30 mins
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Main
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- CREAMY SAUCE INGREDIENTS
- 7 ozs silken tofu (½ of a typical container)
- 1 tbsp parsley
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic
- pinch of salt
- FOR THE SAUTÉED MUSHROOMS AND PASTA
- 1 onion, chopped
- 10 ozs mushrooms, sliced
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- ⅓ cup wine
- ½ tsp dried thyme
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 cups baby spinach spinach
- 12 ozs linguine
- optional Parmigiano cheese to pass at table
Instructions
- Make the creamy sauce: combine the silken tofu, parsley, garlic, 2 tablespoon olive oil and salt in a food processor. Puree the ingredients until it becomes a consistent creamy consistency. Set aside.
- Start boiling water for the pasta as you begin to sauté the mushrooms.
- In a large skillet, heat the remaining tablespoon of olive oil. Add the onions, and cook on medium heat until the onions have softened.
- Add the mushrooms and sauté for about 5 minutes, until the mushrooms begin to sweat. Add the wine, thyme, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook for another 5 minutes until the wine is mostly absorbed.
- Add the spinach to the skillet and cook for a few more minutes until it begins to wilt. Remove skillet form heat and cover to keep warm.
- Start cooking the pasta according to package instructions around the time you add the wine to the skillet. When the pasta is done, drain it, and toss with the mushrooms spinach mixture.
- Add the creamy sauce into the mushroom linguine. Stir until the cream is evenly distributed and the linguine is well coated. Serve hot, passing the optional cheese at the table.
Ilona @ Ilona's Passion
How nice to add a tofu. I am intrigued how it tastes. It is great that is lightened up:)
Cooking Chat
Thanks Ilona, you definitely get the creamy consistency. The tofu doesn’t have a lot of flavor on its on, so you taste the garlic and mushrooms more.
Tracy | Baking Mischief
I have never tried tofu as a dairy-replacement in sauce. What a great idea! From the pictures, you’d never guess that wasn’t heavy cream, and it looks absolutely delicious.
I love that you offer wine pairing notes. That’s one thing I’m definitely NOT confident doing and always feel so lost when trying to make a decision! You’ve taken all the guess work out of it. 🙂
Cooking Chat
Thanks Tracy, I’ve found this tofu replacements works pretty nicely. And we are big on our wine pairings here.
Dionne Baldwin
This is a good dairy free option for creamy pasta sauce. This would be fun to try!
Cooking Chat
Thanks Dionne, this has worked nicely for us in a few recipes.
Lucy - (Recipes @ Globe Scoffers)
Mmm this looks delicious! Thanks for sharing. ?
Martin Redmond
Hi David, I made this for dinner last night. What a great recipe! I ended up using the entire package of silken tofu and doubling up on the mushrooms (we love them and prefer a higher ratio of sauce to pasta), but it turned out great. I used a Languedoc wine for the red wine and paired it with the same wine with wonderful results!
Cooking Chat
Glad you liked it, Martin! Thanks for the notes on your adjustments. Someone also mentioned doing a bit less pasta relative to the other ingredients. Time for a remake of this here and maybe some tweaks to the instructions.