Look Ma…No meat! (Wild Mushroom Pasta)
My family loves meat but every now and then I can fool them and serve a dish without the carnivore stamp on it. The secret ingredient is mushrooms! Mushrooms have a nice meaty consistency that works well as a substitute. We make portabello burgers, stuff creminis with bread crumbs, onions, garlic, parmesan and peppers and slide them into the oven but our favorite is Pasta with Mushrooms. A variety of mushrooms are sauteed with garlic, thyme and shallots, flavored with marsala and finished with some stock and cream. It’s delicious. If you are a purest you can use a mushroom or vegetable stock but I like to use chicken stock.
Pasta a la fungi ok, its really noodles with mushrooms
Ingredients
- 16 ounces of fresh mushrooms combination of wild and white button or cremini, almost any mushroom will work, cleaned and sliced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 T butter
- 1 shallot minced
- 2-3 cloves of garlic minced
- 2 sprigs of thyme
- 1/4 cup dry marsala
- 1 cup stock or broth vegetable, mushroom or chicken
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/4- 1/2 cup grated parmesan
- 1 stalk of green onions or small bunch of chives, chopped
- 1 16 ounce box of linguine or tagliatelle
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Heat oil and butter in a saute pan large enough to fit mushrooms. When oil and butter start to sizzle add shallots to pan saute 1 minute, then add garlic. Saute another minute, when soft but not brown, add mushrooms. Saute mushrooms until brown, liquid released and evaporated. Add marsala and cook a couple minutes to almost evaporated. Add stock, thyme and continue to cook until reduced by half. Add heavy whipping cream and simmer until sauce thickens and again is reduced by half. Add green onions and 1/4 cup parmesan cheese. Salt and pepper to taste.
- While sauce is reducing, bring a pot of water to boil to cook noodles. Boil pasta as directed.
- Drain noodles. Once sauce has reduced add to pasta. Garnish with additional parmesan cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.