Mediterranean Pasta with Mushrooms -- Healthy Pasta Recipe (2024)

Mediterranean pasta is fast, vegetarian and healthy pasta recipe for two. Each twirl of angel hair pasta comes tangled with pan-fried mushrooms, artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes, garlic and olives. The sauce is a silky buttery white wine sauce. This meal comes together in just minutes, and it's a vegetarian favorite in our house!

This might be a bit embarrassing for me, but I'm sharing with you the meal I eat most. This is my single girl supper; it's nothing fancy or complicated. I never tire of it, and any chance I get to make this meal, I do. My husband claims to not like pickled or briny flavors, and this pasta is chock full of pickled things, like marinated artichoke hearts and olives. So, I make it when I'm alone, and I enjoy it alone. It's a vegetarian masterpiece, if I say so myself.

It begins with sauteed golden brown mushrooms and garlic, and ends with juicy sundried tomatoes, green olives, and artichoke hearts in a white wine sauce. The best part is that you'll have the rest of the wine to enjoy with the meal. Using part of the white wine for cooking and the rest for serving is my best kitchen trick. I'm not great at food and wine pairing, but if I serve the wine I cooked with, I know it's going to work!

The entire sauce comes together in one pan while you cook the pasta. In just minutes, you can have noodles coated in a silky buttery wine sauce, studded with the best Mediterranean flavors: sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts, olives, lemon zest, and mushrooms. Ok, mushrooms aren't exactly Mediterranean, but when they turn golden brown and crisp around the edges in a dish, they serve as the meaty component to the dish, and we don't complain one bit!

Healthy Mediterranean Pasta Ingredients:

• Unsalted Butter. Just a small amount of butter goes a long way in coating all of the noodles and making this sauce silky and slightly creamy.
• Olive Oil. I like to use extra virgin because it has the freshest, grassy flavor. We're not cooking it for very long, so you can use your best olive oil for this recipe.
• Pasta. We're using a thin angel hair spaghetti, and I prefer whole wheat angel hair. You can use any kind of noodle you like for this Mediterranean pasta dish.
• Mushrooms. A half pound of white button or cremini mushrooms, sliced.
• Garlic. Three cloves, minced.
• Dry White Wine. A dry (not sweet) white wine that you like to drink. We're using it to deglaze the pan; I like a crisp Sauvignon Blanc from Northern California. If you avoid wine, you may use 2 tablespoons of chicken broth or 2 tablespoons of lemon juice in its place.
• Artichoke Hearts. Marinated artichoke hearts come in a clear, glass jar, typically. The canned artichoke hearts are stored in only water. Using marinated artichokes brings even more Mediterranean flavors to this recipe, because they're marinated in olive oil, lemon and Italian seasonings.
• Sun-dried Tomatoes. Grab the sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, not dry. The ones packed in oil are usually in the jarred olives section, and they're meatier and more chewy when they're soaked in oil.
• Olives. Speaking of olive, I use green Castelvetrano olives, but you can use whatever you like the most. I prefer olives from the olive bar of a grocery store rather than canned because they taste fresher.
• Lemon Zest. We just need the zest to bring a fresh bite, but you can use the juice instead of wine (read above).

How to make:

1. First, gather the ingredients: butter, olive oil, angel hair pasta, mushrooms, garlic, wine, artichokes, tomatoes, olive and lemon zest.
   
2. Next, get the water going on the stove. Bring it to a boil, and add the pasta and cook according to package directions. When it's done, drain and set aside.
   
3. Meanwhile, let's make the Mediterranean Pasta sauce! In a large skillet, melt the butter and olive oil together over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and let cook undisturbed until they start to brown and release their juices. After about 7-8 minutes, give the mushrooms a stir to reveal their golden brown edges.
   
4. Add the garlic to the pan, and sauce for 30 seconds. Then, add the white wine. Let the wine simmer and reduce for 1 minute. (Note: if you're using chicken broth or lemon juice, do not simmer and let reduce: just add and proceed with recipe).
   
5. Next, add all remaining ingredients to the pan: the drained marinated artichoke hearts, chopped olives, and sun-dried tomatoes. Give everything a stir, and lower the heat just to warm everything through.
   
6. Add the noodles to the pan, give everything a good stir to coat with the sauce. If you think it seems dry (like you might have reduced the wine too much), you can add a ladle of pasta water, some juice from the marinated artichoke jar or the sundried tomato jar. Divide between two plates and serve garnished with lemon zest.

What to Serve with Mediterranean Pasta:

A salad would be great on the side, especially this beetroot andfeta salad with arugula.

If you love artichokes as much as we do, you would like my brown butter risotto with grilled artichokes!

What wine goes with Mediterranean Pasta:

This is a frequently asked question here on Dessert for Two, with any recipe that requires wine. My lobster risotto requires a white wine to deglaze the pan, and I would use the same one here. I prefer a Sauvignon Blanc wine from Northern California. Other alternatives are a Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, a Chardonnay or a dry Riesling. Whatever you do, do not use sweet wine. Always cook with a wine that you like drinking so that you can serve the rest with dinner! These same wines can be used for my Chicken Francaise recipe, too!

How many calories in Mediterranean Pasta:

A few years ago, I implemented a calorie counter on my recipe card. You can scroll to the bottom of the recipe card and see that each serving of this pasta has over 600 calories. It's a hearty vegetarian dinner full of vegetables that I feel good about eating.