Mushroom Pasta with Creamy Peppercorn Sauce

⭐️ Why You Should Try This Recipe

• Pasta at its best! This peppercorn pasta is creamy, savory, and so satisfying! The sauce has the perfect amount of spiciness and earthiness.
• Super easy. The best thing about this recipe is that it’s VERY easy to make. It’s the perfect last-minute dish, as it can be on the table in less than 35 minutes. This is now my go-to recipe for pasta, and everyone loves it!
• It’s customizable. While I only went with mushrooms, you can definitely use the vegetables you have on hand or add tofu or tempeh for extra protein.

📘 What is Peppercorn Sauce

Peppercorn sauce is a traditional French sauce often served with meat, fish, or pasta. It consists of aromatics like shallots and different kinds of peppercorns cooked in a broth with cream, butter, and sometimes wine or brandy.

This plant-based version swaps the dairy cream for a cashew-based cream!

🍄 Ingredient Notes

You will need only 7 ingredients to make the peppercorn sauce:

• Butter – It adds richness and flavor to the sauce. Use store-bought or homemade vegan butter.
• Shallots –
• Brandy or cognac – You can replace it with more vegetable broth and a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar.
• Vegetable broth – While homemade vegetable broth yields a superior flavor, it still tastes great with store-bought vegetable broth.
• Cashew cream – Homemade cashew cream brings richness and creaminess to the sauce. You can substitute it with your favorite plant-based cream.
• Peppercorns – This sauce is made with a blend of different peppercorns for a combination of flavors. Pink and Jamaican peppercorns add fruitiness as well as a hint of sweetness. Black, white, and green peppercorns make it peppery and spicier.
• Cornstarch – To thicken the sauce and allow it to coat the pasta.

Then, for the rest, we have:

• Fettuccine – I like to use long noodles like fettuccine or linguine for this recipe as they hold up the sauce very well. If you don’t have any on hand, feel free to use short pasta like penne or fusilli, it also works great.
• Mushrooms – Cremini, white button, or even oyster mushrooms.
• Soy sauce – To deglaze the mushrooms and give them a salty, umami-packed flavor.

🥣 How to Make Peppercorn Sauce Pasta

The peppercorn sauce is clearly the star of the recipe and takes only 20 minutes to make. Here is the process:

1. Sauté the shallots in the vegan butter for 2-3 minutes or until fragrant.
2. Next, deglaze with the cognac and let it simmer for one minute. This will allow the alcohol to evaporate.
3. Cover with vegetable broth and let simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes or until the liquid has reduced by about ⅓.
4. In the meantime, blend the soaked cashews with water to create the cream.
5. Add the cashew cream to the broth as well as the crushed peppercorns. Let the sauce simmer for 2-3 minutes.
6. Finally, to thicken the sauce, pour in the cornstarch slurry and cook for one more minute.

📔 Tips

• Feel free to add a teaspoon of nutritional yeast to the sauce for extra umami and a subtle cheesiness.
• Strain the sauce or not. If you want a smooth sauce without any peppercorns, strain it before thickening it. I prefer to serve it with crushed peppercorns as it adds great flavor.
• Cook the pasta al tende. Do not overcook the pasta. Otherwise, it will become mushy once tossed with the sauce.
• This pasta dish is best served immediately. While you can keep it for up to 3 days in the refrigerator, it’s really best served right after cooking, as the pasta tends to absorb the sauce as it sits.
• Double the sauce. If you want to meal-prep, double the sauce and keep it in the refrigerator. Add the cornstarch slurry and reheat it right before pouring it over the pasta.

🍜 More Fantastic Pasta Recipes

Let me know if you try this recipe in the comments!