I used to think I didn’t like mushrooms, but here I am posting yet another mushroom recipe. I’ll admit it, I hate raw mushrooms. But when cooked, they have an amazing flavor that goes really well with pasta.
On my birthday I went for dinner and ordered a pasta with portobello mushroom sauce. It was delicious, but way too creamy and rich. I decided to recreate the intense mushroom flavor in my own pasta dish, without adding loads of cream. Here’s what I came up with.
The original pasta I had came with fettuccine. It was fresh, too. When I realized I had only about 1/2 cup of flour left in my pantry, I knew I’d have to settle for dried pasta. Why shells? Because they’d add a good amount of pasta water to the mushrooms, thickening the sauce as I added them.
Feel free to play around with the recipe. If I had white wine, I probably would have used about 1/4 cup of that instead of the tablespoon of butter. If you try it that way, let me know how it turns out.
Ingredients:
- 1 shallots, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 pound mini shell pasta
- 1 tablespoon of butter
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Directions:
1. Heat the olive oil in a skillet or saute pan over medium heat.
2. Chop the shallots and mince the garlic, add to the hot sauce pan.
3. Prepare the pasta according to the directions on the box.
4. When the shallots are translucent and the garlic browned, add the mushrooms, and stir. If the pan is too dry and the garlic is burning, add more oil.
5. Add salt and pepper. Continue to stir until the mushrooms are soft.
6. Cut the butter into a few small pieces and let melt into the mushrooms, stir.
7. When the pasta is ready, remove it from the boiling water with a slotted spoon and transfer straight to the mushrooms. Mix. Adjust seasoning and serve.
