The Old Spaghetti Factory’s Spaghetti with Mizithra Cheese and Browned Butter has the benefit of tasting completely decadent and being so easy to prepare. You can recreate this classic dish at home.
Who doesn’t just love a dish that has a few simple easy to find ingredients in it, and it still tastes amazing? Browned butter, if you have never made it tastes so good. Browned butter has an amazing flavor. It has an intense nutty flavor.
Cooked pasta with browned butter is hard to resist. If you have never been to the Old Spaghetti Factory you are missing out on a real nice treat. This dish has to be one of my favorites. I love this meatless option.
I have noticed a lot of other copycat recipes online miss their specific cheese mix. They use Mizithra cheese, but they miss the Romano cheese that the Old Spaghetti Factory adds. The Old Spaghetti Factory actually sells this cheese blend in many grocery stores.
If you don’t have a Sprouts near you, I can tell you how I make my own cheese blend. Mizithra cheese is a greek cheese. So you may have to go to your grocery store’s deli department. If you can’t get your hands on some Mizithra cheese you can substitute a good quality Parmesan cheese. It won’t be a copycat, but it will be quite good.
If you are new to browning butter, it isn’t difficult at all. If you can clarify butter you can make browned butter. You will place the butter into a saucepan and warm it on medium heat, it will begin to froth, and you will use a spoon to spoon off the butter fats on the top of the butter. Then you will continue to cook the butter until it begins to brown. Once it turns the shade of caramel you will have browned butter.
Looking for more pasta dishes? Try these recipes
- Garlic Butter Spaghetti Recipe
- Best Pasta Vodka Sauce
- Manicotti with Meat Sauce
- Chicken Scampi
- Pizza Hut Pasta
- Capellini Pomodoro
- Italian Sausage Instant Pot
- Olive Garden Alfredo
- Olive Garden Lasagna Recipe
- More Olive Garden Recipes
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Be sure to check out more of my top rated pasta recipes and copycat Italian restaurant food.
Old Spaghetti Factory Browned Butter and Mizithra Cheese
Ingredients
- 16 ounces pasta
- 1 cup butter
- 1/2 cup mizithra cheese grated
- 1/2 cup Romano cheese grated
- 1 tablespoon parsley minced
Instructions
- Cook the spaghetti according to package directions. Do not rinse. While the pasta is cooking brown the butter by placing into a saucepan over medium heat. As the butter melts, it will begin to foam. Remove the foam with a spoon. Cook the butter until it browns.
- To prepare the pasta, pour pasta into a bowl. Pour the browned butter over the pasta, and then add the two kinds of cheese. Toss pasta until it is well coated. Serve immediately. This dish does not reheat well.
Auntie Yaya
Delicious and tastes almost the same. When I make it next time, I’ll cut down on the butter by 1/4 cup. Yummy!
Cherry
This was my all time favorite dish every time we went to the restaurant in downtown San Diego. I never ordered anything else! Now I live in western New York, and was browsing in a gourmet shop and saw myzithra cheese! Since I really love the mizithra pasta as much as I do, I thought I’d give it a try. I have a question for your visitors. Has anyone tried sauted garlic along with the butter? I am also going to make it with crispy fried bacon pieces. Garlic and bacon always seem to work for me in many of the pasta dishes I cook and I haven’t had any complaints!
Ingrid
Did you try it with garlic?
Linda Densmore
You can’t mess this dish up! This was also my favorite thing on the menu in San Diego 40 years ago! I was in The Fresh Market in Jupiter,Florida and saw Mizithra cheese for the first time in all those years and decided to buy it and see if I could find the recipe. Brought back memories!
Laura
This IS the best recipe for a delicious dish, The recipe doesn’t mention when to add the parsley. I know it is a condiment at the end of the dish before serving, others might not know when to add the parsley so maybe you could add that to the directions.
Debbie
I find this as I sit here eating what I prepared last night–it doesn’t warm up well?!?
I just took my leftover and threw it in a couple of tablespoons of brown butter in a saucepan and stirred it up. Just as good as last night!!!
Donna
How long does it take o brown butter? I don’t want to burn it.
Stephanie
It takes a few minutes.
Olivia
I love this recipe so much. I am 12 years old and I’ve been trying to find a good recipe for my mom to save money. This is perfect!!! My mom loves it as well. It’s easy enough to make and find, browning the butter is even a simple process too!
trisha deguia
This is a new favorite!
Kenna
Is there something else I can use instead of the Mizithra cheese? I can’t find any in the stores.
Stephanie
It can be hard to find, Parmesan or Romano would also work just fine.
Steve
Reccota Salata is the same cheese in Italian. Most Italian Delis should have.
PAULA FANNON
I found it at Whole Foods
Patsy Hudkins
Kroger stores in TN just started carrying it.
Mike Martin
I have used one cup of Kasiri cheese combined with half a cup of Romano cheese.
Debbie Lopez
I have found a pecorino romano cheese at Costco that seems to have the same salty robust flavor–recommended by Alton Brown. Compared it to the mizithra blend I picked up at sprouts and it is amazingly similar.
Stephanie
Thanks for that, it’s so much easier to find!
Laurie
I actually found it at Vons where all of the specialty cheeses are near the deli.
Annie
Do you use salted or unsalted butter for this recipe?
Stephanie
I used salted, but if you are salt sensitive, I would try unsalted.
Terrie
These guys introduced me to Mazithra back in the day. I love it on pasta and stuffing mushrooms.
Keith
Which kind of Mizithra do you use? The fresh cheese or the salted and aged version?
Stephanie
I believe I was using the salted and aged version, I have never seen this fresh.
Kristi
I bet this would be good on veg-etti.(for low carb)
Barbara
Do you have a recipe for Chick-fil-A chicken?
Stephanie
Not yet!
ruthie
So happy to see this recipe, simple though it is! This was one of my favorite dishes when the gang used to congregate at the Factory in college. We’d order several different “sauces” and eat buffet-style, but there was always at least one plate of this dish on the table. Thanks!
tammy
It is definitely what is on the broccoli and is so yummy!
tammy
It is exactly what is on the broccoli and it is so yummy!
Ron
When I was doing some work there the manager told me it was goat cheese as the second cheese. He wrote it down for me and I lost it darn it. I think it was equal parts of each cheese.
Ron / Sacramento Ca
Jen
I found some of the Spaghetti Factory blend of mizythra cheese in the store recently. In fact, I’m making some of this right now. The blend is mizythra cheese and Romano Cheese. I k ow at the restaurant, they also use fresh parmasean.
gregory anderson
Goat cheese would be caprano romano cheese, if I recall correctly.
Stephanie
Thanks for that heads up!
Katy
I was thinking this is what is on the broccoli at The Old Spaghetti Factory. Is it not?
Darby
Thank you so much for this!! I live in Texas and The Spaghetti Warehouse doesn’t have this. I used to live in Cali and would get it every time I went there! Thanks again!!