Here’s a delicious pasta sauce with a whole grain mustard sauce, bacon and mushrooms to enjoy on an early autumn day. Choose a honey mustard and enjoy the exquisite combination of flavours in this creamy mustard pasta.
I always like to celebrate the changing of seasons with foods that tune in to the flavours and colours of the time of the year. Early fall is comfort food with style, it’s warm brown tones, it’s a marriage between sweet and savoury. There’s something cozy about the golden hour happening earlier and earlier and the surprise of stepping on the first morning frost of the year. The food needs to match that coziness.
This creamy mustard pasta with bacon and mushrooms has all I love in an early fall dinner. Pasta is an ultimate comfort food and here is coated in a creamy mustard dressing made with sour cream and mustard. The mustard I used is a blend of whole grain mustard and honey, so it’s sweet with a slight kick from the mustard seeds. Smoked bacon and mushrooms – in this case chanterelles, those that abound in the Swedish forests – complement the mustard in this delicious pasta dish. Finish it off with a sprinkle of porcini salt flakes and a little parsley.
Creamy mustard pasta ingredients
Here’s a more detailed overview of the ingredient that you need to make this pasta dish.
- Pasta of choice – for this particular recipe I chose spaghetti. I usually prefer short pasta types, but some recipes just call for good old spaghetti. This is one of those.
- Creme fraiche – thick sour cream is the base for the creamy mustard sauce. Unlike whipping cream, it doesn’t need to be reduced as it’s already thick, and its light acidity highlights the flavour of the other ingredients.
- Whole grain mustard – choose a type that is sweetened, mine is a mixture of mustard and honey. If you can’t find such mustard, stir in some honey to tone down the strength. We really want to play with the sweet and savoury flavours happening at the same time in this recipe.
- Diced bacon – smoked diced bacon is a delicious addition to creamy pasta recipes, and a great combo with mustard.
- Mushrooms – I chose chanterelle mushrooms for their lovely colour and because to me they represent one of the treasures of early fall in Sweden. I went for thawed frozen mushrooms as when I made this recipe they were not in season yet.
- Salt flakes – I used salt flakes with dried porcini to up the mushroom flavour. Regular salt works just as fine.
How to make it
To make this delicious pasta sauce you need to take care of three main steps:
- cooking the pasta,
- making the mushroom and bacon base,
- making the creamy mustard sauce.
Then it’s all about combining the three for this delicious pasta dish. And enjoying it.
The bacon and mushroom base
- Warm a skillet on medium heat and melt the butter. Add the finely chopped onion and sauté 2-3 minutes, until soft.
- Add the diced bacon to the skillet and cook until lightly browned, 3-4 minutes.
- In the meantime, clean the mushrooms from any residual soil. If you are using thawed frozen mushrooms like I did, you can skip this step as they are cleaned before freezing.
- Add the mushrooms to the pan and sauté until soft. Cooking time depends on mushrooms used. Fresh mushrooms may release some water and take longer. Increase the heat to evaporate the water.
- I did not add any salt here as the bacon made the whole concoction pretty salty already. Add salt only if necessary.
The creamy mustard pasta sauce
- Stir the mustard and sour cream until combined. Add salt to taste, quantities will depend on mustard sweetness.
- Fine salt will dissolve more quickly, salt flakes will dissolve once the sauce is added to the other warm ingredients. Crush the salt flakes between your fingers if particularly large and hard.
- Cook the pasta in boiling salted water, drain and combine with creamy mustard sauce.
- Stir in the sautéed mushrooms and bacon.
I like to combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl, and then return the pasta to the skillet and bring that to the table, as I love presenting pasta in a pan! My cast iron skillet is coated in ivory enamel with a nice warm brown handle and these colours just match this pasta so well not to serve in it!
For another creamy pasta dish try this walnut sauce pasta.
A marriage between sweet and salty
Choosing a honey mustard, this creamy mustard pasta will lean towards a sweeter tone. The intensity will obviously vary according to the type of mustard you choose. Mine was labelled as “sweet” and listed both honey and sugar in its ingredients. The addition of other flavourful ingredients such as smoked ham and sour cream helps to balance out the sweetness.
If you feel that your pasta is slightly too sweet, just add more salt to the mustard and sour cream mixture. Remember that this sauce will be mixed together with the salty bacon mixture and with the salted cooked pasta. But the first thing you’ll taste to get a feel if the sauce is too sweet will surely be the mustard and cream mixture.
If on the other hand your mustard is pretty low on the sweet ingredients and comes across as quite hot and kicking, feel free to stir in a teaspoon of liquid honey to adjust the flavour. Then combine the sweetened honey mustard with the creme fraiche, adding salt to taste.
Hey, mushroom lovers!
Mushrooms are among my favourite foods, so here are some more recipes from this blog that feature this delicious ingredient!
- Creamy chanterelle risotto
- Mushroom and goat cheese crostini
- Cream cheese and hazelnut stuffed mushrooms
- Raw button mushroom salad
- Creamy chicken and mushroom skillet stew
- Mini tarts with mushrooms and parmigiano
Have you tried any of these? Let me know in the comment section!
Bacon and mushroom creamy mustard pasta
Ingredients
- 250 g pasta
- 140 g smoked bacon diced
- 130 g mushrooms (chanterelles)
- 1 yellow onion finely chopped
- 1 tbsp butter
- 125 ml creme fraiche
- 1 tbsp honey mustard whole grain
Instructions
- Warm a skillet on medium heat and melt the butter. Add the finely chopped onion and sauté 2-3 minutes, until soft.
- Add the diced bacon to the skillet and cook until lightly browned, 3-4 minutes.
- Clean the mushrooms from any residual soil. Add the mushrooms to the pan and sauté until soft. hawed frozen mushrooms take about 5 minutes. Fresh mushrooms may release some water and take longer. Increase the heat to evaporate the water if necessary.
- Cook the pasta in boiling salted water according to package instructions.
- In a small bowl combine the creme fraiche and mustard and stir to incorporate. Add salt to taste; if using salt flakes crush them between your fingers prior to adding to the sauce.
- When the pasta is cooked, drain and combine with cream and mustard sauce.
- Add sautéed mushrooms and bacon and toss to combine.
- Serve with minced fresh parsley as decoration (optional).
