Why boil pasta then toss it with sauce when you could cook it directly in the sauce? This is the question we’ve been asking ourselves ever since Basically editor Sarah Jampel’s genius vegetarian pasta dish entered our lives. Lentils, browned mushrooms, tomato paste, and other friends get a head start before pasta joins the party; as the noodles cook, they absorb the tomato-rich broth while releasing the starches that eventually form a creamy sauce. Depending on the power of your burner, you might find that your liquid is evaporating before your noodles are al dente. If this happens, just add very hot water to the pot, about ½ cup at a time, until the pasta is cooked. If you're craving acid, you can deglaze the vegetables with red wine or add a splash of red wine vinegar or a squeeze of lemon juice at the end.
Recipe information
Yield
4 servings
Ingredients
¼
1
8
1
2
1
¼
½
10
1½
3
½
Preparation
Step 1
Heat oil in a large Dutch oven or other heavy pot over medium. Add onion and mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are deeply browned and really starting to stick to bottom of pot, 12–14 minutes. Season lightly with salt.
Step 2
Add garlic, lentils, tomato paste, and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring often, until tomato paste darkens slightly and lentils are coated, about 2 minutes. Add 6 cups water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer gently until lentils are tender but still have some bite, 10–12 minutes.
Step 3
Add pasta and 1 tsp. salt to pot. Increase heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring often (especially as the liquid starts to reduce toward the end) and adding very hot water by ½ cupfuls as needed if liquid is reducing too fast, until pasta is cooked through and liquid is reduced, 10–14 minutes.
Step 4
Remove pot from heat and stir in Parmesan, butter, and ½ cup parsley. Taste and season with more salt if needed.
Step 5
Divide among bowls and top with more Parmesan and parsley.
How would you rate Pasta With Lentils and Mushrooms?
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Reviews (138)
Back to TopThis is great but needed modifications--- more tomato paste and some kind of rice vinegar or wine or soy sauce. I also added eggplant and kale to up the veggies. relatively easy week night meal. Hoping it keeps and reheats well.
Anonymous
chicago, IL
9/5/2023
The positive reviews are from people who significantly modified the recipe. As it is, it produces a bland, brown gruel. Edible, but a chore to eat.
Zea mays
6/19/2023
I'm glad I read reviews so I was prepared to add seasoning to the sauce. It ended up very tasty and I will make it again but, ya gotta know, it is basically a riff on chili mac. A really good riff. Definitely try to get the double tomato paste.
Susan
Forks, WA
3/6/2023
This was excellent, but with a few tweaks. I deglazed the onion and mushrooms with a quarter cup of red wine, then cut down the tomato paste to two tbsp and added a can of crushed tomatoes before cooking down the lentils in stock and then topping up with water when cooking the pasta (probably came to about 1.25 litres liquid). Added some chopped parsley stems in with the garlic as well. I recommend you don't skimp on the butter, it really adds some richness.
Lisa
London
11/11/2022
We LOVED and DEVOURED this! I picked it last minute, I did not use mushrooms, I added spinach and used tomato sauce + a garlic red pasta sauce. It smelled delicious and just came out so much better!!! I think we used extra onion and parsley too. SO DELICIOUS and satisfying to cook.
Korinne Elizabeth
Bay Area, CA
9/23/2022
Overall we really liked this! I did read the comments first. I added some crushed tomatoes in addition to the tomato paste, but mostly just because I absolutely tomato sauce. I also used about 4 cups of chicken stock in place of some of the water. I also deglazed my mushrooms with a little red wine vin so I didn’t leave anyone behind. But I can almost never make a recipe as written! I am always making minor tweaks. We thought it was delicious.
Anonymous
South Carolina
4/10/2022
So this definitely didn't look like the photo! It was tasty and good winter comfort food, but more like a stewy mac and cheese than what the photo depicts. I'm glad deglazed the veggies with 1/4 cup of red wine, because this definitely needed an acid. I also used slightly larger pasta, gemelli, and that was fine. I would definitely double the tomato paste at the beginning, and, since I'm not vegetarian, add a few anchovies to the onions at the beginning. I have lots of leftovers, which I anticipate will taste better than the first meal last night, and I'm planning on stirring in some canned diced tomato to achieve more tomato flavor.
Meg
Washington, DC
2/1/2022