Creamy goat’s cheese and mushroom pasta with walnuts

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Creamy goat's cheese and mushroom pasta with walnuts and basil. The walnuts add such a beautiful crunch - it's great against the creamy sauce! A brilliant quick and easy vegetarian dinner.

I’m never one to turn down a good foodie challenge. Other kinds of challenges, maybe – I remember refusing to abseil down a 15 foot wall (which isn’t even that tall!) when I was about 11 because I didn’t see the point of putting myself through all that stress just for the sake of it (why not just stay on the ground in the first place? Much simpler). When it comes to certain parts of life, I’m not exactly adventurous.

With food though, I love trying new things – hence the number of vegan recipes, gluten-free recipes, low carb recipes etc. on this blog, even though I don’t follow those diets myself. I just find it interesting to challenge myself to try something new.

Creamy goat's cheese and mushroom pasta with walnuts and basil. The walnuts add such a beautiful crunch - it's great against the creamy sauce! A brilliant quick and easy vegetarian dinner.

St Helen’s Farm, who make a whole range of goat’s milk products, recently challenged me to vary my dairy by introducing some goat’s milk into my diet as well as the usual cow’s milk. I did have to do a bit of research to check I was allowed goat’s milk now that I’m pregnant (from what I could tell, pretty much everything is fine as long as it’s pasteurised, apart from soft mould-ripened cheeses, which are a no-no). Once that was out of the way, I was raring to go.

Goat's milk products

They sent me a variety of products from their range, which I’ve been enjoying all week. Sorry, there’s a yogurt or two missing from the photo – I started digging in before remembering I should actually do some work rather than just eating it all. The yogurts are suuuuper creamy (I was surprised how good they were!), and I’ve been enjoying the goat’s milk on my cereal this week. It tastes different enough from cow’s milk that it feels like you’re having something a bit different, but not so different that it feels completely alien.

My favourite products from the range are the cheeses (what did you expect?). I adore goat’s cheese. Here I combined the smooth, spreadable goat’s cheese (which I suppose is a bit like cream cheese, but with more flavour) and the hard goat’s cheese to make a rich and silky pasta sauce.

Creamy goat's cheese and mushroom pasta with walnuts and basil. The walnuts add such a beautiful crunch - it's great against the creamy sauce! A brilliant quick and easy vegetarian dinner.

The pasta’s mixed with some garlicky sautéed mushrooms (helloooo), and some roughly blitzed basil and walnuts. I suppose it’s a bit like a simple, coarse pesto. The walnuts might not be overly obvious in the photos, but they add a beautiful crunch that goes really nicely against the creamy goat’s cheese sauce. Definitely a combination I’ll be using again – especially since this whole pasta dish can be made in about 20 minutes (my kind of recipe).

Do you use many goat’s milk products in your kitchen, or do you tend to stick to what you know?

Creamy goat's cheese and mushroom pasta with walnuts and basil. The walnuts add such a beautiful crunch - it's great against the creamy sauce! A brilliant quick and easy vegetarian dinner.

Creamy goat’s cheese and mushroom pasta with walnuts

Pasta with a creamy goat cheese sauce, crunchy walnuts and fresh basil.

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5 from 9 votes
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Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes
Servings: 2
Calories: 646kcal
Author: Becca Heyes

Ingredients

  • 190 g uncooked pasta (~ 2 cups)
  • 1 tbsp oil or butter (I used goat’s butter)
  • 100 g button mushrooms, halved or quartered (~ 1 cup)
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 3 sprigs fresh basil
  • 50 g walnuts (~ 1/2 cup)
  • 65 g hard goat’s cheese, grated (~ 3/4 cup when grated)
  • 2 tbsp spreadable goat’s cheese or cream cheese
  • 2 tbsp milk (I used goat’s milk)
  • Salt
  • Black pepper

Instructions

  • Boil the pasta in plenty of water until cooked to your liking, around 12-15 minutes.
  • Meanwhile, heat the oil or butter in a large frying pan, and add the mushrooms. Cook for a few minutes over a medium heat, then add the garlic, and cook for a few more minutes until the mushrooms are soft and the garlic is fragrant.
  • Add the fresh basil and walnuts to a mini food processor, and blitz for a few seconds until coarsely chopped (if you don’t have a mini food processor, just roughly chop by hand).
  • Add the walnut mixture to the mushrooms, along with the grated hard goat’s cheese, spreadable goat’s cheese, and a dash of milk. Season generously with salt and pepper, and stir everything together until the cheeses have melted to give a smooth sauce.
  • When the pasta is cooked, drain it and add it to the pan with the sauce. Toss to coat, and serve topped with more fresh basil if desired.

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts
Creamy goat's cheese and mushroom pasta with walnuts
Amount Per Serving (1 portion)
Calories 646 Calories from Fat 329
% Daily Value*
Fat 36.5g56%
Saturated Fat 10.6g53%
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 104mg35%
Sodium 228mg10%
Potassium 508mg15%
Carbohydrates 56.1g19%
Fiber 2.3g9%
Sugar 2.4g3%
Protein 27g54%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Nutritional information is approximate, and will depend on your exact ingredients. Please calculate your own nutritional values if you require accuracy for health reasons.

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Here’s one of my favourite goat’s cheese recipes – puy lentil lasagne with a creamy goat’s cheese sauce:

Puy lentil lasagne with creamy goat's cheese sauce
5 from 9 votes (2 ratings without comment)

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26 Comments

  1. I made this with a couple of substitutions (Greek yogurt and thyme, only because that’s what I had on hand). It was amazing! The walnuts are really a wonderful addition I never would have thought of. I will definitely make sure I have basil for next time. Thanks again!5 stars

  2. I made this tonight for dinner and it was spectacular! I accidentally only had about 30g of walnuts (bad planning on my part), but I topped up with 20g of pecans and it worked very well. :) Thanks for posting such a great recipe, Becca! I’ll definitely make this one again.5 stars

  3. I lurv goats cheese! and yes I do love experimenting with new textures, ingredients and the like. I love the sound of the crunchy walnut and creamy sauce ummmm! Good to know its safe to consume when ur preggers!5 stars

  4. I’ve never seen you can get all these goats milk products! Being a total goats cheese fiend I will have to give them a go. This looks like perfect comfort food, and full of great flavours!5 stars