This recipe is a variation on the traditional Italian mushroom pasta - I've added a little single cream. Not so much that you feel weighed down by the richness of the dish, but just enough or comfort.....
Mushrooms are a strangely more-ish ingredient full of the savoury glutamate flavour. Once you've eaten good mushroom pasta, the memory of its flavour will stay with you and every now and again, you'll crave more.
I use chestnut mushrooms as they always seem denser than white mushrooms and have a lot more flavour.
Miraculous ingredients: chestnut mushrooms, good quality spaghetti (Giuseppe Cocco is excellent), fresh parsley, ground black pepper, Parmigianno Reggiano (Parmesan)
Spaghetti with chestnut mushrooms, cream & parsley
Ingredients
250g chestnut (brown) mushrooms finely sliced
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped
200ml single cream
Freshly ground black pepper
350g Spaghetti (I like to use Giuseppe Cocco spaghetti)
Freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano to serve
Method
Place a large pan that can hold a good 3 litres of water onto a high heat. When the water starts to boil add a teaspoon of salt and all the spaghetti.
Put a dry medium size frying pan on a low heat to warm up while you get the ingredients ready. Add all the extra virgin olive oil and butter to the warm pan. Add the garlic and fry for 30 seconds. Don’t let the garlic brown and release any bitterness.
Add the finely sliced mushrooms and stir. Increase the heat to high so all the water released by the mushrooms can evaporate and the mushrooms begin to brown. Leave to the mushrooms to fry for a good few minutes before stirring again.
Once the mushrooms have developed a dark brown colour add the finely chopped parsley, stir and continue to fry for another minute.
Turn the heat down and add all the cream and a few grinds of black pepper. Let the mushrooms and cream simmer for a couple of minutes so the flavours meld together.
When the spaghetti is cooked al dente (soft on the outside but slightly hard in the middle), lift the spaghetti out of its water with a pasta spoon and put it into the pan with the sauce. Add a few tablespoons of pasta water to help create a sauce (the starch in the pasta water thickens the sauce).
Serve immediately with lots of freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano.
Preparation time 10 minutes, cooking 10 minutes, serves 4