I am having a bit of a mushroom fix at the moment. I recently spent some time on a friends game farm, and making sure to keep near the house so that I wouldn’t get shot by a professional hunter, or attacked by a lone sable, I took my macro lens and headed out to see what was underfoot. Its amazing what you see when you look down. The tiniest insects and flowers become a kaleidoscope of colors once captured with the macro lens…. and then there are mushrooms. Who would have thought… pushing up through the hard dry dirt roads and hiding under trees, they seem to appear out of nowhere.
So it got me thinking about what to make with mushrooms. Now I don’t advise picking mushrooms from the side of the road and eating them, as many of the wild mushrooms are poisonous, but you can buy mixed wild mushrooms at most of the good stores these days. What better combination than pasta with mushrooms. Seriously…. this is delicious and can be cooked up in 30 minutes from start to finish.
Finely chop one onion and two cloves of garlic and saute gently in an olive oil and butter combination. Finely Chop 10 small button mushrooms and add to the pan. Add one teaspoon of dried mixed herbs, and a teaspoon of either mushroom stock or vegetable stock and 100ml water, with salt and cracked black pepper to taste. Remove from the pan and then gently cook two packets of mushrooms until tender.
Add these mushrooms to the onion mix and then add 150 ml cream, and if you are watching your waistline, you can use natural yoghurt instead. Do not allow this to boil, its merely heating the cream because the chopped onion mix will thicken the sauce, and you dont want to overcook the mushrooms. Cook the pasta “el dente” and toss the mushroom mix and pasta together. Add chopped parsley and top with shavings of Parmesan cheese.
Click on other great pasta recipes from Shades of Cinnamon
Pasta with Walnuts, Blue Cheese and Chives
Pasta with Shrimp/Prawns and Red Peppers
Pasta with Grilled Peppers and Chili
- 2 Tablespoons butter
- 1 Tablespoon oil
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon mushroom or vegetable stock powder
- 1 teaspoon Dried mixed herbs
- 150ml cream or natural yoghurt
- 100ml water
- 400g mixed mushrooms
- salt and cracked black pepper to taste
- Pasta of your choice – I used fettucini
- Finely chop the onion and gently saute in half the butter and oil mixture until soft.
- Crush the garlic and add to the mixture.
- Chop 10 button mushrooms finely and add to the mixture . This helps thicken the sauce.
- Add the mixed herbs and stock powder, and the water and cook for a few minutes. Set Aside.
- With the remaining oil and butter cook the mushrooms until soft and add the onion mix to the pan.
- Add 150ml of cream and 50ml of water to make the sauce ( or all cream if you prefer the mixture creamy)
- Cook your pasta of choice, making sure it is “el dente”.
- Drain the pasta and toss the sauce over the pasta.
- Serve with shavings of parmesan and chopped parsley.
