When you arrive at your holiday destination, all you really want to do for dinner is something quick and easy, right? We made our way up to a friend’s farm outside Montagu yesterday and threw together this delicious mushroom pasta in 20 minutes.
For those of you who follow my recipe blog, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of saucy pastas. Rijk got me onto a new tangent last night with this oh-so-tasty, non-sauce variety.
You’ll need:
10g butter
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic (more if you wish), crushed and chopped
3 bay leaves
250g button mushrooms, washed and thickly sliced
15g dried wild mushrooms, rehydrated and roughly chopped *
2 sprigs of thyme
Black pepper and garlic salt to season
200g pasta, penne or fusilli
200g feta cheese (we used one with sundried tomato but it’s up to you)
* Dried wild mushrooms are available from most big supermarkets. I had some left over from my wild mushroom, robust herb and double cheese calzone. You can of course replace these with fresh wild mushrooms from a market or picked yourself if you know how. And if you’re wondering why I’ve been on a bit of a mushroom kick of late, make sure you get the September issue of Getaway where all will be revealed!
Here’s how:
First up, if you’re using dried mushrooms soak them in 500ml warm water for 30 minutes to re-hydrate them. When they’re done, pour the water into the pot that you’re going to cook your pasta in – it will give a wonderful flavour and aroma.
Melt the butter over a high heat and saut the onions and garlic until translucent. Crack your bay leaves and add them to the pan for two minutes. Turn the heat down to medium, add the button mushrooms and fry for about five minutes.
Heat the pot of mushroom water, remove half a cup and set aside. Add a litre of plain water to the pot, bring to the boil then add pasta to the pot.
Next throw your wild mushrooms and sprigs of thyme into the pan. Keep it all moving and after another five minutes turn the heat down to medium-low, add the half-cup of mushroom water and let everything simmer gently, uncovered. When the water has reduced to almost nothing, season with black pepper and garlic salt and remove from the heat. Take out the bay leaves and thyme sticks.
Drain the pasta and put back in the pot. Add the feta and mushrooms and toss well. Crack black pepper over the top, serve with a good glass of wine and enjoy!
Yours in food
Leigh
PS Holidays to me are all about food and cooking (it helps to have someone along who doesn’t mind the cleaning up)! So you can expect lots of recipes to come from this week. On tonight’s menu is a pot of Glhwein and slow roasted leg of lamb. I’m working up my appetite already
