This is one of those simple simple simple ingredients that I make when I don’t want to give more than 2 seconds thought to dinner. I always have the ingredients, it is ready in two shakes, it couldn’t be easier to make, and most importantly, it tastes like HEAVEN. The heaven part is due to the miracle of brown butter, which is butter that has been lovingly melted on the stove until it turns, yes, brown. Brown butter has a nutty taste that is indescribably delicious, so I won’t even try…but it did give me the idea of adding some nuts to this pasta dish. Just when I thought heaven couldn’t get any more heavenly…it did.
This is a dish that calls for very few ingredients – pasta, walnuts, Parmesan cheese, black pepper and butter, to be exactly. And so you want every single one of them to be as wonderful as they can be. Because you’re worth it!
The butter is of course key to everything.
I like to make my own, which takes about 10 whole minutes, and if you want to make your own too you can click right here to find out how. But if you want to stick with store-bought, my two absolute favorites are Kerrygold Irish butter and Kate’s Homemade Butter. (A different Kate, not me! One day I will figure out how to sell my own butter and ricotta cheese, but not today.)
My friend Alessandra always brings me utterly amazing Parmesan cheese whenever she goes to Italy to visit her grandmother (I know, I am ridiculously lucky), so I’m all set there. Make sure your walnuts are nice and fresh, and use your favorite pasta (I am a Barilla girl). In the time that it takes to cook your pasta, this recipe will be just about ready for you to start twirling on your fork.
I highly recommend serving it on warmed plates, because it keeps the pasta nice and hot throughout your meal, and because warmed plates always feel like the height of coziness to me. Go make yourself and someone you love some brown butter pasta with walnuts now. Heaven!
Brown Butter Walnut Pasta
Yield: 2 1x
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Browned butter, walnuts and parmesan cheese team up to make a heavenly pasta sauce in this simple recipe!
Ingredients
- 8 ounces linguine or spaghetti
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 cup walnut halves
- 1/2 cup finely shredded parmesan cheese
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Cook pasta in heavily salted water according to package directions. Scoop out 1/2 cup pasta water before you drain it and set aside.
- While the pasta is cooking, melt the butter in a deep skillet over medium heat. Stir it until it turns brown. As soon as that happens, take it off the heat.
- Add the drained pasta, the cheese and the walnuts to the skillet with the butter. Toss everything with tongs until well combined, drizzling in just enough pasta water to make a light sauce.
- Serve on warmed plates with a generous grinding of black pepper.
Hi there! I’m Kate, and I’m a recipe writer, food photographer and devoted bacon lover. I started Framed Cooks in 2009, and along the way my recipes have also been featured in places including Huff Post, the Today Show, BuzzFeed and Glamour. My mission is to create and share family-friendly recipes that make cooking both easy and fun…yes, I said FUN! My kitchen is my happy place, and I want yours to be that place too. Let’s cook together!
Framed Cooks is delighted to have appeared on these great sites!
I absolutely love simple dishes like this. And anything with browned butter is a major WIN!
Right there with you on the brown butter – have you tried it on mashed potatoes? THE BEST. :)