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French Onion Pasta has all the delicious flavors of the classic soup in pasta form! Caramelized onions, garlic, mushrooms, and thyme are combined with beef broth, pasta, Worcestershire sauce, and parmesan cheese to create an incredible dish. Everything is made in one pot for a quick and easy weeknight meal!
Reasons You’ll Love This Recipe
- Easy to Make: This recipe is ready in under an hour, and everything cooks in one pan!
- Comfort Food: If you’re a fan of French onion soup, just wait till you taste this ultra-delicious French onion pasta recipe
- One-Pot Meal: One-pot recipes are always my go-to for a quick, delicious meal that’s easy to clean up. More one-pot dinners to add to the menu are this creamy mushroom Florentine, parmesan chicken tortellini, or Cajun Alfredo pasta.
Ingredients Needed For French Onion Pasta
This French Onion Pasta recipe is made with simple yet super flavorful ingredients. Caramelized onions, mushrooms, herbs, and parmesan cheese are all cooked in a creamy sauce with pasta. You really can’t go wrong with this combination of ingredients! The exact measurements are in the recipe card at the end of the post.
- Yellow Onions: The best type of onions to caramelize for balanced sweet-savory flavor.
- Butter: For sautéing the veggies and adding richness to the dish.
- Garlic: Adds great flavor and complexity.
- Mushrooms: Sliced mushrooms are sautéed with the garlic and thyme until they’re soft and delicious.
- Fresh Thyme: Adds fresh herbal flavor.
- All-Purpose Flour: Helps thicken the white wine and broth mixture to create a creamy sauce.
- White Wine: Wine is a great addition to cream-based sauces because it cuts some of the richness and also adds depth of flavor to the sauce.
- Beef Broth: Use a low-sodium broth to control the amount of salt in the recipe.
- Rigatoni: Abosorbs the sauce.
- Worcestershire Sauce: Flavors of vinegar, garlic, chiles, molasses, and more give this pasta a wonderful umami taste.
- Parmesan Cheese: Freshly grated parmesan will give you the best results.
- Salt and Black Pepper: Season to taste!
How to Make French Onion Pasta
Not only is French onion pasta easy to make, but it all cooks in one pot for a fuss-free meal! It tastes so incredible too!
- Prep: Cut the onions in half and then thinly slice them. Heat the butter in a large pot over medium-high heat and add the sliced onions.
- Caramelize Onions: Cook the onions, stirring occasionally until the onions are caramelized, about 20-30 minutes.
- Sauté the Mushrooms: Once the onions are caramelized, add the garlic, mushrooms, and thyme. Sauté until the mushrooms are soft, about 3-4 minutes.
- Sauce: Whisk in the flour so it creates a thick paste. Slowly whisk in the white wine. All the flour paste should be incorporated.
- Add Broth and Pasta: Add the beef broth, pasta, Worcestershire sauce, and salt and pepper. Bring to a low boil and cook until the pasta is al dente or has the desired texture.
- Serve: Remove the pot from heat and then stir in the parmesan cheese. Then, serve fresh with additional parmesan cheese.
French Onion Pasta Tips and Variations
Use these tips and ideas to make sure you end up with the most delicious French onion pasta!
- Cooking the Onions: Watch the onions closely as they’re caramelizing. You don’t want them to burn. If they start to burn, turn the heat down a bit and continue to stir. You can also add a teaspoon or two of water.
- Mushrooms: You can leave the mushrooms out of this recipe if you aren’t a fan of mushrooms. I like them for added texture and flavor. If using, feel free to use any favorite variety.
- Type of Pasta: We really like rigatoni for this recipe, but penne or ziti are great choices. Feel free to use whatever kind of pasta you have on hand or that you like best. Even spaghetti noodles work!
- Type of Cheese: Gruyère cheese is authentic to French onion soup, so feel free to use that instead of parmesan. A good Swiss cheese or provolone cheese works great too!
Storing Leftover One-Pot Pasta
Pasta makes great leftovers! It’s so convenient to have it in the fridge to quickly warm up for a no-fuss lunch the next day. Here is how to store leftovers:
- In the Refrigerator: Store your French onion pasta in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
- To Reheat: When you’re ready to enjoy later, rewarm over the stove on low heat or in the microwave! It may be necessary to loosen noodles up with a splash of broth, water, or milk.
More Delicious Pasta Recipes
Pasta is one of our favorite meals. I have tons of delicious tried and true recipes for you to try. Here are a few of my favorites that you will for sure love!
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French Onion Pasta
Ingredients
- 2 large yellow onions
- ¼ cup butter
- 3 teaspoons minced garlic
- 8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme, plus more for serving
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup white wine
- 5 cups beef broth
- 16 ounces rigatoni, uncooked
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- ½ cup grated parmesan cheese, plus more for garnish
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Cut the onions in half and thinly slice them. Heat the butter in a large pot over medium-high heat and add the sliced onions.
- Cook the onions, stirring occasionally until the onions are caramelized, about 20-30 minutes.
- Once the onions are caramelized, add the garlic, mushrooms, and thyme. Sauté until the mushrooms are soft, about 3-4 minutes.
- Whisk in the flour, creating a thick paste. Slowly whisk in the white wine, all the flour paste should be incorporated smoothly.
- Add the beef broth, pasta, Worcestershire sauce, and salt and pepper. Bring to a low boil and cook until the pasta is al dente, or to the desired texture.
- Remove the pot from heat and stir in the parmesan cheese. Serve fresh with additional parmesan cheese.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Tasty and made a fair amount. I didn’t have fresh thyme so I used a handful of dry. My only quibble was that 5 cups of broth was not enough to cook a box of rigatoni, so I had to add 2 1/2 cups of water as I didn’t have any more beef broth to use. Will definitely make again.
Super yummy!! I halved the recipe because I was only cooking for myself, and used cavatappi instead of rigatoni because that’s what I had. But the texture and consistency turned out perfect! I cooked it until the pasta absorbed most of the liquid, and then the parmesan thickened it just enough. I will definitely make this again!
The flavor was terrible. Maybe parmesan isn’t the right cheese to use?
I rather stick with the soup.
Sorry.
I wonder what I did wrong? Mine came out like pasta soup. I always exactly follow the recipe the first attempt. If not, I would never comment. But notice in the last meal prep photo that five cups of stock makes it look very soupy. Yet, in the highlight photos, it looks like thick sauce that coats the pasta. I can only assume you’re supposed to seriously boil down the stock but this is not mentioned. It came out intriguing enough to try it again with my own mods. But either the instructions need clarification or the amount of stock should be adjusted. I am guessing the former. There is no way that you are supposed to boil it down with the pasta. Your pasta would turn out like slop.
Hi Hooper! I’m so sorry it didn’t work out for you!
My pasta was liquidy at first, but after cooking everything together for about 20 minutes the pasta had absorbed the sauce and it wasn’t too soupy.
This looks delicious! I am going to try this tonight. Only thing I am gonna cut up a ribeye steak and cook it and then add it to the pasta dish.
Looking forward to making this forthr family