Wild Mushroom Pasta: lusciously local!

Maybe this whole locavore thing isn't such a bad idea. You know, the thought that you should get most of your food from within a certain small radius around your immediate community. I came to this conclusion as I was sitting at the wine shack at the end of the day fucking around on the computer, or as I like to call it, doing some important "internet research". Walking through the door is my friend Kate bearing bags of just gathered mushroomey goodness. AND she's in a sharing mood! It seems she and her friend Andrea were up in the woods about 40 minutes out of town gathering early season chanterelles. By the way, I can't even tell you how cool it is to live in a place where just outside of town you can gather incredible wild mushrooms! Anyway, when they got to her secret gathering spot (and if you didn't know, mushroomers are notoriously secretive types about their favored hunting grounds. Ask them and you get the "I'd tell you but then I'd have to kill you" look) and as she was opening her car door, she literally looked down and saw this GIANT cauliflower mushroom right next to the car. That's just a small piece of it she gave me in the top pic.

Now earlier in the day when I was thinking about dinner I had halibut with remoulade in mind. But when someone throws this kind of bounty down in front of you, you bet your ass mushrooms were suddenly going to appear on tonight's menu! I mean, what sounded better last night: watching Barack and John arguing like schoolgirls while they try to impress someone named Joe the Plumber or playing with my new mushrooms? Yeah, that's what I thought, too! With something this fresh...I mean it had literally been in the woods about 60 minutes earlier...you don't fuck around with it. Simple is definitely better. My first thought was risotto, then the siren song of pasta started to sound even better. Something where you could fill up your senses with the full, glorious, unadulterated aromas and flavors. I had made this pasta a couple of years ago, and had wanted to remake it with a couple of tweaks...which means I really could have done better. This was the perfect opportunity. And so it was, and this dish absolutely nailed it. Sautéed in a little butter and olive oil, with onion, a little thyme and parsley, a splash of cream, it was absolutely stellar. One of those things with each bite you are swooning, like tasting nature. Really crazy stuff!

These mushrooms were so fresh they released a lot of liquid, but rather than boiling it off as some recipes call for, I let it be part of the sauce. I mean it was like built in mushroom stock (pic at left), especially infused with the butter, olive oil, and onion flavors. Incredible!

Thanks for sharing Kate...your generosity was much appreciated at our dinner table!

To drink with it I opened a bottle of what in my semi-informed opinion is one of the two best American pinot noirs made, a 2002 Thomas "Dundee Hills" Pinot Noir. More on that tomorrow, I promise! Any good, earthy red would work. A Barbera from Italy's Piedmont would also have been a nice choice. Just nothing too heavy, like a big cabernet or syrah, which would have overwhelmed the rich yet delicate flavors of the mushrooms.
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Wild Mushroom Pasta
an eat.drink.think. original
serves 4

ingredients:
3/4 cup diced onion
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
3/4 to 1 pound mixed wild mushrooms sliced and chopped into not too small pieces
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 pound dry pasta
salt and freshly ground black pepper

parmagiano-reggiano for sprinkling

method:
heat 1 tablespoons oil and 2 tablespoons butter over medium heat in large sauté pan. When hot, add onions, sprinkle with a pinch of salt, and sauté until soft, about 6-8 minutes. Add garlic and sauté for 1 minutes more. Add mushrooms and sauté until softened, about 8 minutes. While mushrooms are sautéing start pasta water. Turn heat under mushrooms down to low and add heavy cream. Grind in a bit of fresh pepper, stir, and bring to a boil. Gently stir for one minute, then turn heat to lowest setting. I think letting this sit in the pan at low heat while the pasta cooks helps the flavors of the onions, mushrooms, thyme and cream come together. When pasta is done, drain, add to mushroom mix. Add parsley, saving some for garnish. Adjust salt and pepper, plate, sprinkle a small amount of parsley on top, and serve immediately. Pass grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, and enjoy!

Deliver me from desperation!

We've all been there. Coming home after work, dragging a little, having no idea what's for dinner. Knowing you either come up with something or it'll turn into one of those "breakfast for dinner" nights. Last night was a perfect case in point. I open the fridge....stare....stare some more...hoping inspiration is hidden in the chilly confines, maybe behind the jar of mayo. And then it hits! I open the meat drawer, where ironically all my veggies tend to hide, and there is that bag of earthy goodness I picked up a week ago at the farmer's market, about a pound and a half of porcini and morel mushrooms. Then the mind starts clicking. I look 36" above that and grab that hunk of pancetta out of the freezer, a stick of butter, a chunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano....getting closer now....is it still there? Yes! A serviceable bunch of parsley. Oh, and there's that tub of Crane Bros. mascarpone...sure, why not. I'm home free now. Some garlic, olive oil, a box of DeCecco fusilli out of the cupboard, S&P, and here ya have it, a delicious dinner in about 20 minutes. Hunger averted, satisfaction delivered!
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Wild Mushroom and Pancetta Pasta

ingredients
1.5# wild mushrooms sliced
5 oz pancetta diced
2-3 tbls. Olive oil
5 cloves garlic peeled and lightly crushed
1/3 cup Italian parsley
2 tbls. Butter
2-3 tbls. Mascarpone
1# fusilli or any other favorite pasta
Salt & fresh ground pepper
Parmigiano-Reggiano for passing

Heat large pot of water to boil for pasta. Pour olive oil into large sauté pan. Heat up over medium heat and add crushed garlic cloves. Infuse oil until cloves turn golden brown. Remove cloves and discard. Add diced pancetta and cook until crisp. Remove pancetta from pan, leaving oil and "bacon juice", add butter and melt. Add pasta to water and cook until done. Add mushrooms, sprinkle with salt, and sauté about 10 minutes or until soft. Add pancetta back to mushrooms. Stir in mascarpone. Drain pasta and return to pot. Add mushroom/pancetta mix and parsley to pasta, mix together with salt and pepper to taste and dig in! Pass parma for sprinkling.

Wild Mushroom Pasta

4/21/2007
Even while I'm away I care about your happiness. And of course there's the two hours to kill while we wait for our plane to depart here in "beautiful" Newark. Could there be more oil tanks and ugly industry around any airport? Not exactly like landing at PDX and flying down the Columbia. While pondering this horrific industrial excess, I remembered that I wanted to mention a great pasta I whipped up last night (Friday) when w and I were on a mission to empty the fridge before we left.

I had forgotten I had some morels and other fresh mushrooms from last Saturdays Farmer's Market. I got home late from the wine shack, and still had some getting ready to do, and needed something fast and good. So out came the mushrooms, a stalk of leeks, and some DeCecco perciatelli pasta. It turned deliciously, earthily mushroomy, just what we wanted, and for a last minute throw together it will find a place in the regular rotation. Very easy and super quick, this makes me look forward to my next visit to the market and the mushroom guys....

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Wild Mushroom Pasta
Serves 4

Ingredients
3/4 pound mixed wild mushrooms sliced and chopped into not too small pieces...I used morels, shiitake, and hedgehogs
1 cup chopped leeks, white and light green parts only
1 tablespoon minced garlic
Olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup 1/2 and 1/2
1 pound pasta

How: Melt 1 tablespoon butter with 2 tablespoons oil over medium heat in large sauté pan. When hot, add leeks, sprinkle with a pinch of salt, and sauté until soft, about 8 minutes. Add garlic and sauté for 2 minutes more. Add mushrooms and sauté. After about five minutes add one more tablespoon of butter, then sauté for another five minutes. While mushrooms are sautéing start pasta water. Turn heat under mushrooms down to low and add 1/2 and 1/2. Grind in a bit of fresh pepper and stir together and let cook for two minutes, then turn off heat. I think letting this sit in the pan while the pasta cooks helps the flavors of the leeks, mushrooms, and cream come together. When pasta is about a minute from being done, reheat mushrooms mix, drain pasta, add to mushroom mix. Adjust salt and pepper, plate, sprinkle some grated Parmigiano-Reggiano if you want, and enjoy!