Wow... Sister's wedding is over, and life has started to resemble normality once again. Yesterday decided to have some of the ladies over, to relieve them from cooking duties on a Monday after work. I know I'd love it if people did that to me on Mondays :)
After agonising at what to feed them, I decided that our freezer (yet again!) is really full, so wanted to use something out of there. I found 2 packets of mushrooms - one was only porcini, the other was mixed forest mushrooms. We also have some truffle oil that we never get to use so I thought this would go smashingly with it! Opened the cupboard, and Voila! Papardelle Al Ouvo! (egg pasta!) even better! And so a dish was made:
Papardelle Al Ouvo
serves 5**
1 packet (350g) frozen mixed forest mushrooms
1 packet (350 g) frozen porcini mushrooms
6 medium fresh cup mushrooms (normal mushrooms)sliced
(feel free to add any other mushrooms to this mix!)
6 cloves garlic, chopped
Glass of dry white wine
a handful of parsley, chopped
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt, pepper
500g Papardelle al ouvo (or any flat egg pasta)
Freshly grated Parmiggiano to serve
Extra virgin Olive oil infused with truffles, to serve
Put a large pot of water to boil (for the pasta) salt well.
Heat some olive oil in a large frypan (i use a wok style one) and cook up the garlic till softened (but not brown!).
Remove the garlic with a slotted spoon, so now you have garlic flavoured olive oil. Set garlic aside.
Throw the fresh mushrooms in, and stir fry until cooked (golden but not shrivelled). Remove from pan, set aside.
Add a little more oil to the pan.
Add the packet of still frozen mixed mushrooms. Cover the frypan and leave for a minute, then uncover and break up the mushrooms gently with a wooden spoon. If there's lots of liquid already coming out, spoon it over the frozen block of mushrooms and it will help speed up the defrosting process.
Once they are all broken up, add the garlic and the white wine and allow to simmer for about 5 minutes (covered).
Add the frozen porcini mushrooms, stir around (and spoon over the hot liquid to help break them up faster) and add the handful of chopped parsley and salt and pepper (you will need to be quite liberal with the salt especially!)
If there's heaps of liquid, leave it to simmer uncovered, you can always add more liquid later from the pasta water. I allowed it to simmer with the lid on, but not tightly on if u know what i mean :) It will only need to simmer for another 5 minutes or so.
Keeping tasting the liquid to ensure there's enough salt and flavour.
At this point you should be able to throw the pasta in. While the pasta is cooking, if the sauce is a little dry, add spoonfuls of the pasta water until it's the right consistency.
When it's nice and al dente but cooked, reserve about a cup of the liquid, drain the pasta and throw the pasta into the pan with the mushrooms.
Toss the pasta in the sauce, adding a bit more liquid if it needs it. At this point put about a teaspoon of the truffle oil and a futher sprinkle of fresh virgin olive oil whilst tossing it around.
Serve into bowls, ensuring that the different mushrooms are divided amongst the peoples :)
Serve with small amounts of freshly grated parmiggiano :)
**One little mistake I made was serving part of the sauce to my folks before the friends arrived, leaving not quite enough for 5 people. This amount really does serve 5 people, if you're going to serve more either use another packet of the mushrooms or add a bunch of fresh ones :)
VARIATIONS:
- I think this would be nice with some cream and/or a major knob of butter.
- Also possibly if you have truffle pate, add a tablespoon or so to the mushroom mix jut before tossing the pasta through. Then use fresh sage not parsley as the herb.
- Would also be great with zucchini added.
- or Pancetta cubes :)
- if you have fresh mixed mushrooms, u don't need to simmer for as long, and you'll need to add more liquid. Frozen mushrooms "make" lots of water. heh.
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