I'm on it.
Pasta with alfredo sauce and wild mushrooms
I'm sure Italians will hate me for it, but this is too delicious. I take punishment with grace.
Takes 30 minutes, start to finish.
Serves 3 mushroom-loving adults
Ingredients
* about 40 g of wild mushrooms. Boletuses or Bay Boletes are fine. You can use frozen or dried mushrooms (see below how to prepare dried mushrooms for this recipe)
* 1 small onion (Unless you're using dried mushrooms. Then you don't have to add the onion)
* about 50 g unsalted butter
* about 160 g sour cream
* two hadfiuls of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, but any cheese with strong and sharp taste should do the trick.
* Pasta, obviously. I find fussili, penne or elbow macaroni works best (as opposed to the original Alfredo, that should be served with fettucini)
* extra butter and a little oil for some frying we'll be doing, unless you're using dried mushrooms
* Salt and pepper to taste
* chopped parsley
Directions:
Prepare the mushrooms. If you're using frozen ones, let them de-feeze.
Chop the mushrooms into half-inch pieces.
Chop the onion quite thinly into pieces and fry it on butter (with about a teaspoon of oil, so the butter wouldn't burn) untill it's golden, then add mushrooms. Add some salt and pepper, mix well and let it simmer for about 15 minutes, until soft.
Let them rest for now, but have them handy.
Cook the pasta, drain it and leave it be for now, but have it handy.
Now, the hard part.
We're going to make the sauce, and you need timing and concentration for it. You can't let the sauce be too thin (that means, too much butter), too sour (too much cream) or too gooey (too much cheese/it cooked for too long). That means, you need to adjust the ingedients as you go. Butter, cream and cheese should be all in 1/3 proportions, volume-wise.
I recommend grating a bit too much cheese, just in case.
In a big pot (big enough to mix ALL the ingrediends in, including pasta and mushroom), melt the butter, but do not let it brown. Use slower fire if you're a beginner.
Add the cream. Keep in mind the proportions! Mix energetically untill the ingredients are combined. Take it off the fire and add a little salt and pepper.
Put it back on the fire and add the cheese. Mix fast untill the sauce is smooth.
Take the pot off the fire and adjust the ingredients if you added too much or too little of something.
When ready, put the pot back on the fire and toss mushrooms and pasta into it.
Stir well for about 30 seconds, untill everything is mixed well and pasta is covered in cheesy and mushroom-y goodness.
Put the pasta on the plates and decorate with chopped parsley.
Enjoy the taste.
You can clean your kitchen later
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On dried mushrooms:
You can add dried mushrooms to the dish instead of fresh or frozen ones, and you don't need to use onion then, but there is a bit of prepairing to do.
Shred two handfuls of dried Boletuses into half-inch pieces and toss them into a pot. Add boiling water and cook them for about half an hour on slow fire. Drain them.
Your mushrooms are ready to add to the sauce.