Pasta in a Creamy Wild Mushroom Sauce

When the weather gets cold, I start craving pasta, pasta, and more pasta (I fully blame this on my Italian mother).  I don’t want to get stuck eating the same thing every night though, so I try to have a few recipes on hand that I can cycle through so that I don’t get sick of my delicious carbs.

Combining my love of mushrooms with my affinity of pasta, I tend to use this recipe a lot. This recipe does include whipping cream though, so I wouldn’t suggest making this a weekly staple. But it is a really easy and comforting meal.

Ingredients:

Cook the pasta according to the directions on the box, but don’t add any salt or oil to the water (you’ll have enough of that within the rest of the recipe). I cooked mine to be a bit al dente to give the dish a little more texture. When ready, drain and keep to the side.

While the pasta is cooking, melt the butter in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Once melted, add the mushrooms, onion, shallots, garlic, 1 teaspoon salt, and pepper, stirring occasionally. The mushrooms will give off some liquid, so cook the mixture until the liquid evaporates (about 10 minutes). Add wine and cook until evaporated, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.

Add cooked pasta, whipping cream, cheese and parsley to the mushrooms and toss. Add ½ teaspoon salt if needed.

This dish is best piping hot. As it cools, it seems to lose some of its flavor so serve it immediately. The whipping cream will absorb into the mushrooms and the pasta, so there will not be much of an actual sauce but have no fear, the taste is there! As with most of the dishes I make, this can most certainly be reheated for lunch the next day, but I’d suggest adding a touch more whipping cream before reheating (or before you leave for work). This is also a great base dish. Salmon, chicken, scallops and bacon would all be delicious additions to this meal.