Ham and Mushroom Tagliatelle with Black Pepper Sauce

If you like pasta I think you will love this ham and mushroom tagliatelle with black pepper sauce. It's a creamy pasta dish that can be on the table in less than half an hour - perfect for a mid-week supper.

Tagliatelle with ham, mushrooms and a creamy homemade black pepper sauce is a delicious pasta dish to make when you're short of time.

I've been making this pasta recipe for years, ever since I saw it in a magazine as a dip for potato wedges (without the tagliatelle of course). I took one look and decided it would make the perfect pasta sauce - and with a couple of adaptations, a new recipe was born!

The sauce for the ham and mushroom pasta takes around 20 minutes to cook so with only one or two minutes of prep, you can have this dish on the table in less than half an hour. (You can boil the pasta while you're making the sauce).

I love the taste of the crushed black peppercorns in the creamy sauce. And if you want to up the pepperiness slightly you can adjust the amount of peppercorns to your own taste.

Made without the tagliatelle, this sauce is great for pouring over a steak, because it's packed with mushrooms and tasty onions that complement a grilled steak beautifully.

And to go back to the origins of this recipe, it also makes the perfect dip for potato wedges. Just halve the quantity of milk and cornflour in this recipe, leave out the pasta, and serve as a dip alongside my crispy potato fries.

For extra colour, garnish with chopped parsley just before serving.

Jump to:

• What you will need:
• What to do
• Variations
• Can I freeze this dish?
• Save for later
• Other recipes
• 📋The recipe

What you will need:

Equipment

You will need a couple of saucepans - one for cooking the pasta and the other for making the ham and mushroom sauce.

Ingredients

**You can get the exact ingredient quantities to make this ham and mushroom pasta dish on the printable recipe card at the end of this post**

This recipe will serve 4 people.

• Ham - I use either sliced sandwich ham or ham off-cuts from my local supermarket. They are super cheap, and one packet is normally sufficient for 2 pasta dishes, so I chop it all up in one go and then freeze half in a plastic bag ready for the next meal. I also find that leftover gammon works really well with this recipe (especially leftover oven-baked gammon). The ham should be chopped into approximately 1cm pieces.
• Mushrooms - you can use button mushrooms, white closed-cap or brown chestnut mushrooms. Depending on their size you should cut them into halves, quarters or thick slices.
• Onions - white onions are preferable, but you could use red instead. The onions should be peeled and chopped into 1cm dice.
• Black peppercorns - you need whole peppercorns, which have been cracked open. You can use a mortar and pestle for this, or if you don't have a mortar and pestle, pop the peppercorns into a plastic bag and give them a whack with a rolling pin. It works just as well. Don't grind them up too finely though - they should be just cracked open and flattened.
• Tagliatelle - I find this is the best pasta shape for this recipe, but it doesn't really matter. Linguine or spaghetti will work too, as will shell noodles.
• Butter - this forms the base of the sauce, and is also used for softening the onions.
• Cornflour - you may know it as cornstarch - is used to thicken the sauce.
• Milk and cream - I use half milk and half double (or heavy) cream for this recipe. If you don't have cream you could use all milk, but in this case, I would recommend using full-fat milk.

What to do

Cook the pasta

Put the tagliatelle on to cook in a saucepan of boiling salted water. Boil for the time recommended on the packet. Drain the cooked pasta in a colander and then rinse under cold running water to stop the cooking process. Leave aside to drain until needed.

Other prep

• Peel the onions and cut them into 1cm dice.
• Wipe the mushrooms with a damp cloth to remove any bits of dirt and cut them into pieces.
• Cut the ham into 1cm dice.
• Mix the milk and cream in a jug and stir in the cornflour until there are no lumps.

Make the sauce

At this point, you should taste the dish. I haven't listed salt as an ingredient, but you may find you need half a teaspoon of salt in the sauce. Also, taste the strength of the pepper. If it is not peppery enough for your taste you can add freshly ground black pepper to spice things up a bit. Be careful with the pepper if you are going to freeze the sauce; the strength of the pepper does intensify on standing.

Add the cooked pasta and toss with 2 forks to combine. Try to get the ham and mushroom mixture nice and evenly distributed between the pasta. Leave it on low heat for another minute or two to let the pasta heat through.

Tip into a serving dish, garnish with chopped parsley and optionally sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese.

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Variations

Here are a few ways to vary the taste of this dish.

• Add two or three chopped cloves of garlic with the onions.
• For a cheesy version, stir 4 ounces (120 grams) of cream cheese into the sauce once the milk has been added.
• Swap out half of the onions for a small diced red pepper.
• Stir a handful of frozen peas into the sauce at the last minute.

Save for later

If you'd like to try this ham and mushroom tagliatelle yourself, why not pin the recipe to one of your Pinterest boards so you can find it easily? Just click the image below.

Alternatively, you can save the recipe by clicking on the floating heart icon on the right-hand side of the screen.

Other recipes

Visit my pasta recipes page for other pasta recipes. Here are a few you can put together in half an hour:

📋The recipe

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