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Sauce

Mushroom and Spinach Cream Sauce

A creamy sauce made with heavy cream, butter, garlic, tomato paste, Parmesan, mushrooms, and spinach.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Garlic and spinach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,435 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Mushroom and Spinach Cream Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Melt butter in a medium skillet and add garlic.

  2. Pour heavy cream into the skillet.

  3. Add tomato paste and Parmesan cheese, whisk together and let the sauce simmer.

Finish and serve

  1. Sauté mushrooms and spinach in butter.

  2. Pour sauce over pasta and add mushrooms and spinach.

  3. Sprinkle leftover cheese on top.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

311Calories
15 gProtein
25 gFat
10 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Parmesan Cheese1 oz (28g)110
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Mushroom1/2 cup sliced (35g)15
Spinach1 cup raw (30g)7
Garlic1 clove (3g)4

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Garlic + spinachtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Mushroom + spinachtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together778 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Garlic + mushroomtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,700 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Heavy cream
Provides richness and body, letting the sauce thicken and coat the pasta.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory depth and salt, and helps the sauce thicken as it melts.
White button mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and a meaty texture; browning them in butter deepens their taste.
Spinach
Adds green leafy texture and mild earthiness, wilting quickly in the warm sauce.
Tomato paste
Adds concentrated acidity and savory umami, giving the sauce colour and depth.

The step that matters

Let the sauce simmer gently after adding the cheese. Cream and cheese can separate or turn grainy if they boil hard or cook too fast. A gentle simmer lets the Parmesan melt smoothly into the cream, keeping the sauce silky and thick.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, butter, garlic, mushroom, spinach):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, butter, garlic, mushroom, spinach. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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