This One Pot French Onion Pasta is rich and creamy, with sweet caramelized onions, cremini mushrooms and orecchiette. Simple, delicious and easily adaptable for vegan and gluten free.
How to Make One Pot French Onion Soup
Inspired by classic French Onion Soup, this one pot pasta recipe begins with caramelized onions. While it may take a while to achieve that deep golden brown color, the amazing savory sweetness that it’s going to add to the pasta makes everything worth it.
To caramelize onions, simply heat some olive oil in a high sided skillet or pot until it shimmers. Add in what seems like way too many sliced yellow onions and a generous pinch of salt. Continue stirring the onions over a medium flame until they begin to cook down.
This will probably take about 30 minutes. If at any point the onions appear dry or begin to burn, just add a splash of water and continue cooking.
Once the onions have cooked down and become deeply caramelized, add in some garlic, thyme and sliced cremini mushrooms. Cook these for another few minutes until fragrant and the mushrooms begin to release their moisture.
Next, deglaze the pan with a little white wine and use a rubber spoon to pull up any brown bits on the bottom of the pot. Before pouring in the stock, a couple tablespoons of flour get stirred in as a thickener.
Beef stock is going to act as part of the cooking liquid for this one pot French onion pasta, however chicken broth or vegetable broth can also be substituted. Pour in you liquid of choice, plus some water and bring everything up to a boil.
Now just cook the pasta like you would normally. Salt the water and stir frequently until al dente. It’s important that there’s still a pretty good bite to the pasta when you turn off the heat because it will continue cooking as it sits in the pot.
My favorite part about this pasta dish is how the caramelized onions and starch from the pasta that releases while it cooks turns into this creamy, rich sauce. It may not seem like all the liquid has been absorbed by the time the pasta is cooked, but it will continue to thicken once you turn off the heat.
Finally, once the pasta is cooked through, turn off the flame and stir in a spoonful of sherry vinegar. This last hit of acid is going to help bring out all the delicious flavors of the other ingredients.
Serve warm, with some fresh thyme or chopped herbs, maybe toasted breadcrumbs if that’s your thing and enjoy!
Tips for Making One Pot French Onion Pasta
- When cooking the onions, it’s best to stir them every 3-4 minutes or so. If you don’t stir them enough, they will burn, but if you stir them too often, they will not have a chance to brown.
- To make this One Pot French Onion Pasta vegan, replace beef stock with vegetable stock. It will not have the same flavors as a traditional French onion soup, but it will still be delicious!
- For gluten free, use gluten free pasta and flour substitute. The flour can also be omitted entirely, the pasta dish just won’t be as creamy.
- Keep in mind that other types of pasta will have different cook times. I strongly recommend orecchiette because it holds the sauce really well, but other short cut pastas work as well. Make sure you read the package instructions for specific cook times and start tasting early for doneness.
More One Pot Recipes to Try
- One Skillet Pesto Chicken and Orzo
- Toasted Lemon Pepper Orzo with Crispy Chickpeas
- Burst Cherry Tomato Chicken and Rice Skillet
- One Pot Harissa Pasta Bolognese
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One Pot French Onion Pasta
Rich and creamy One Pot French Onion Pasta with sweet caramelized onions, cremini mushrooms and orecchiette.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 3 yellow onions, thinly sliced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 8 oz cremini mushrooms, sliced
- 1 tbsp fresh thyme
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 2 tbsp all purpose flour
- 2 cups beef broth (or vegetable broth)
- 2 cups water
- 12 oz dried orecchiette or other short cut pasta
- 1 tbsp sherry vinegar
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- Fresh herbs and toasted breadcrumbs for serving (optional)
Instructions
- Heat oil over a large skillet over medium heat. When shimmering, add the onions and a generous pinch of salt. Cook, stirring frequently until deeply caramelized. About 25-30 minutes.
- Add the garlic, mushrooms and thyme. Sauté for 3-4 minutes or until the mushrooms begin to soften. Add the wine to deglaze the pan and add the flour. Cook for another 2-3 minutes, until thickened.
- Pour in the beef stock (or vegetable stock) and water. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Bring to a boil then add the pasta and cook for 8-10 minutes or until al dente. (Keep in mind that other pasta shapes will have different cook times).
- Turn off the heat and stir in the sherry vinegar. Serve warm.
Notes
See blog post for more tips
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
6Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 233Total Fat: 10gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 8gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 356mgCarbohydrates: 27gFiber: 2gSugar: 3gProtein: 6g
All nutritional info is an estimation
So you pour four cups of liquid into the pot to cook the pasta? Not cooking pasta separately?
Yep! The pasta cooks in the same pot as the other ingredients.
This looks fabulous, definitely going to give it a try! I don’t usually keep sherry vinegar on hand…could I sub out red or white wine vinegar or would you recommend the sherry?
Red wine vinegar would work!
I made this this weekend, and we absolutely loved it. The amount of liquid and cooking time was not even close to enough for my pasta (orecchiette). I ended up having to cook it for an extra 20ish minutes, and after the first 10 minutes, I finally covered the skillet and kept adding more liquid. Next time I will increase the liquid and cover the pot from the beginning. I’m sure it’s just the brand of pasta I buy (PC Black Label), and likely differs for each person based on that.
The flavours were amazing and I will be adding it to my regular rotation!! Thank you for this recipe, loved it so much!
PS The red wine vinegar worked perfectly!
Made this tonight. It was sooooooo good! Definitely putting this into our meatless Monday rotation! I liked it so much. I have shared your link with several others. 🙂
Sounds delightful. I’m thinking sautéed gnocchi instead of pasta. Will advise…
I agree, the orecchiette requires more liquid than the recipe calls for, but other than that small detail, the dish was delicious
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Liked this recipe a lot, however, next time I’ll try chicken broth instead of beef for a slightly lighter-flavored sauce. I had to add an additional one cup of liquid to finish cooking the pasta. The sauce thickened and the pasta was too al dente so extra liquid was needed. Very rich flavor! I can’t believe 3 onions cooked down so much. The caramelized sweetness of the onions was divine.
If I wanted to make double the amount of pasta would I just double the amount of liquid? Or not that simple? Thank you
Hi Jordan! You should be able to double the recipe, just watch the pasta closely and add more liquid if it starts looks dry. I hope you love it!
Would you be able to make this with chickpea pasta (banza) shells? Looking for protein boost but usually I cook this and rinse off the starch so not sure it would work
Hi Kourtney! I’ve never tried this recipe with chickpea pasta, but I have a feeling it might work! The extra starch should help thicken the sauce, but you may need to adjust the amount of liquid called for. Best of luck!
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I added in a pound of ground beef and some green yogurt at the end and it was sooo good!
Hello! I 2as curious what size the onions should be. I only have large ones and I sliced them up. It looks like too much. Wish me luck haha
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I haven’t used chickpea pasta in this recipe, but I have had great success with it a similar recipe. Additional liquid and longer cooking time were needed and I am anticipating the same need when using chickpea pasta in this recipe.
I want to make this but don’t want to spend the $ on fresh thyme since it’s not an herb I use frequently so would rather not spend $4 just for a tablespoon. Do you think dried thyme would work?
Hi Judy! Absolutely, you can replace the fresh thyme with 1 tsp dried thyme. I hope you love the recipe!
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I’ve made this twice now, and it’s delicious! I’m still figuring out how to manage the heat so the onions caramelize evenly, but even with some of the onions getting a bit too dark brown and some of the bits still being a little pale, it’s amazing. I recommend using a mandoline slicer for the onions, it really does save time and give great consistent results.
The white wine I bought was pretty disappointing when I took a sip, but it worked great for the pasta. It brings a great splash of fruit and acid and adds a lot to the dish. Likewise for the fresh thyme, I’m glad I spent the extra couple bucks and didn’t just use the dried stuff in my pantry (although I’m sure it would still be great with dried thyme). The only thing I changed in the recipe was that I didn’t have sherry vinegar, so I used a splash of white wine vinegar. It got the job done, definitely don’t skip that step! You need that little bit of fresh acidity at the end to brighten it up. This made my house smell amazing and even my toddler loved it.
The only thing I’d change is maybe adding a bit more stock or water so the pasta has more liquid to cook in. Also stuff kept sticking to the bottom of the pot no matter how frequently I stirred it, but I think that’s because my electric stovetop is inconsistent with the amount of heat it puts off. Next time I’ll lower the heat considerably after bringing the liquid up to a boil and maybe take the pot off the heat entirely when I need to. I would definitely recommend making this!
That makes me so happy to hear that it was a hit! Thank you so much for your review, Erik.
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This looks so good! What a great combination of flavors!
Made this for the first time tonight. Made it it veggie broth, champagne vinegar, and orzo pasta. It’s delicious. Husband is ooohing and ahhhing over it. Will definitely make again.
Hi! Are there any non-alcoholic substitutes for the white wine and sherry vinegar? This looks so great I’d love to try it out, but I really can’t do alcohol.
Hi ‘Em! You can go ahead and skip the wine, just deglaze the pan with a bit of broth. Apple cider vinegar is a great alternative for the sherry. Hope you like the recipe!