Delightful truffle butter pasta, rich, creamy, and ready by the time it takes the pasta to cook. Spaghetti or linguini coated in a creamy, buttery sauce – the perfect recipe for a romantic dinner.
This delicious truffle butter pasta recipe allows you to enjoy the luxurious truffle flavor in a simple dish made with inexpensive ingredients. All you need are a few good-quality ingredients and about 15-20 minutes of your time.
And the result? An elegant and incredibly flavorful pasta dish made with truffle butter, cream, and Parmesan, perfect for any day of the week and exceptionally suited for dinner for two (in this case, you might want to make a little less).
Check out more truffle pasta dishes, like this Truffle Pasta made with fresh black truffles or this Truffle Oil Pasta (with Mushrooms). Or how about making Rich Truffle Mashed Potatoes or Truffle Eggs?
Recipe ingredients
- Black truffle butter: Compound butter made with tiny black truffle shavings or synthetic truffle flavorings. I recommend the first one mentioned; if you have some homemade stuff is even better. White truffle butter should also be ok, but I have never tried it.
- Pasta: Spaghetti or any other type of long pasta you like. Fettuccine, bucatini, linguine and even tagliatelle are all great.
- Parmesan cheese: Always freshly grated from a wedge; it is better than pre-grated in every possible way.
- Heavy cream: It makes the dish nice and creamy.
- Pasta cooking water: Don’t forget to reserve about 1 cup of pasta water (250 ml) before draining the noodles; it’s essential for a nice and unctuous truffle butter sauce. You will not need it all; use as required by the dish.
- Spices: Fine sea salt, ground black pepper, a few gratings of nutmeg, and some chopped fresh parsley for serving. Freshly chopped sage leaves or a generous sprinkling of chives are also great.
How to make truffle butter pasta?
- Cook the pasta: Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add salt generously to the boiling water (See Expert Tips). Cook the spaghetti al dente (follow package directions). Reserve some of the cooking water and drain the rest. Return the noodles to the pot.
- Make the sauce: Gently heat the butter, heavy cream, and garlic in a small saucepan. Turn the heat down to very low and add the Parmesan, some of the reserved cooking water, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Stir to combine.
- Combine: Pour the butter mixture over the drained pasta and toss to combine. Add more pasta water as the cream sauce needs and adjust the taste with salt and pepper.
Expert Tips
How much salt to add to pasta water?
- The only chance you have of adding flavor to pasta is while it cooks; a teaspoon salt won’t do it, and adding extra salt after cooking won’t do much in terms of flavor. So, make sure that you add enough salt from the start.
- Don’t worry about ingesting too much sodium; the noodles will absorb a tiny amount of salt, and you will drain almost all the cooking water.
1 lb/ 450 g pasta + about 17 cups/ 4 liters water + 1 tablespoon table salt or 1 1/3 tablespoon fine sea salt or Kosher salt.
Parmesan: I strongly recommend using freshly grated Parmesan from a wedge. However, if you only have pre-grated, you will need less than 1/3 cup. Freshly grated Parmesan has more volume.
Heat: The truffle-cream mixture should never get too hot, or the Parmesan will get grainy. Stir on very low heat or turn the heat off completely.
Recipe FAQ
For the truffle flavor, you need truffle butter. However, you can use plain butter and some truffle oil instead (about 1 to 2 teaspoons, to taste). A dish made with only plain butter will still be super tasty but will not taste anything like truffles.
Serve it with steaks, prime rib, or other cuts of beef. It’s also great for burgers and perfect for making luxurious baguette sandwiches. You can add it to scrambled eggs, risotto, other pasta dishes, mashed potatoes, and even popcorn.
You’ve overheated it after adding the Parmesan. Stir the cheese into the sauce on the lowest setting of your stovetop or turn the heat off completely and melt the cheese using only the residual heat.
The truffle butter pasta is best served immediately. However, you can refrigerate the leftovers in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Reheat on the stovetop, adding a splash of milk or in the microwave.
I don’t recommend freezing leftovers.
More elegant pasta dishes
Truffle Butter Pasta
Equipment
- Large pot
- Small saucepan
Ingredients
- 1 lb spaghetti Note 1
- 2 oz truffle butter 60 g
- ¾ cup heavy cream 180 ml
- 1 garlic clove grated
- ⅓ cup Parmesan freshly grated, 25 g, more for serving, Note 2
- ⅓-½ cup pasta cooking water 75-125 ml, as needed
- a few gratings of nutmeg
- fine sea salt or Kosher
- ground black pepper
- fresh parsley chopped
Instructions
- Cook the pasta: Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add salt generously (Note 4). Cook 1 lb/450 g of pasta al dente. Reserve about 1 cup of the cooking water before draining the pasta. Return the pasta to the pot and set aside while you make the sauce.
- Sauce: Place the truffle butter, heavy cream, and grated garlic clove in a small saucepan. Heat very gently until the butter melts. Turn the heat down to the lowest setting and stir in freshly grated Parmesan, about ¼ cup of the pasta water, a few gratings of nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine (Note 5).2 oz/ 50 g truffle butter, ¾ cup/ 180 ml cup heavy cream, 1 garlic clove, 1/3 cup/ 25 g Parmesan, ¼ cup/ 60 ml pasta cooking water
- Combine: Pour the truffle butter sauce over the pasta. Toss to combine and add a bit more pasta water to loosen the sauce (I add about ¼ cup more but do it as needed).
- Adjust the taste with salt and pepper and sprinkle with freshly chopped parsley. Serve immediately with more Parmesan if desired.
Notes
- Substitute with linguine, fettuccine, bucatini, or other long types of pasta.
- Cheese: I strongly recommend using freshly grated Parmesan from a wedge; the pre-grated one is just not good. However, in case, you still want to use pre-grated, you will need less than 1/3 cup. Freshly grated Parmesan has more volume.
- Salting pasta water: Be generous with the salt when cooking pasta; it really makes a difference. One pound of pasta (450 g) cooked in about 17 cups (4 liters) of water needs 1 tablespoon of table salt or about 1 1/3 tablespoons fine sea salt or Kosher salt.
- The mixture should never get too hot, or the Parmesan will get grainy. Stir on the lowest setting of your stovetop or turn the heat off completely.
Linny
Wednesday 1st of March 2023
This is the best truffled past recipe I've tried, even better than pasta with white (Oregon) truffle. The recipe I used (also from this blog) did not have any cream in it. The only thing I did differently was to shave all of it on top of the pasta, each diner self-dosed it, at serving time. Will definitely use this recipe again; thank you so much, Adina!
Adina
Wednesday 1st of March 2023
Hi Linny. Thank you so much for your comment and for the rating. I am really happy you liked the recipe! :)