Pappardelle with Mushroom Sauce

There's something about mushrooms and pasta. I love mushrooms in stir-fries and curries, and when it comes to veggie burgers not much beats a properly marinated and grilled portabella cap, but pasta and mushrooms really do seem made for each other, especially when there's no meat involved.

So it was that, yesterday, I decided to make a pasta sauce with mushrooms and not much else. I happened to have brown crimini mushrooms and some dried porcini on hand, but I bet that this would be equally good (or better) with many different varieties. Having dried mushrooms is important though, because the water you rehydrate them in is a component of the sauce.

This doesn't take long to whip up at all, and it's delicious. I loved it with pappardelle, but any pasta would work fine, I'm sure.

Dried Porcini Mushrooms

Ingredients
-8 oz pappardelle or pasta of choice
-2 glugs olive oil (about 1-2 TBS each)
-1 large shallot, thinly sliced (you can sub half a small onion here if you'd like)
-generous sprinklings of dried parsley, basil, and oregano (if you have fresh, even better)
-3 medium cloves of garlic, minced
-about 12 oz fresh mushrooms, sliced
-1 generous glug (about 2-3 TBS) white wine--unnecessary but really good
-1/4 cup dried porcini mushrooms, rehydrated in 1 cup boiling water and chopped
-a couple handfuls of fresh spinach, stemmed and chopped
-salt and pepper to taste
-lots of parmesan, for serving




Procedure

1) Start preparing your pasta as directed--if you already have your sauce ingredients ready to go, the pasta and sauce should be ready around the same time
2) Place the dried mushrooms in a bowl and cover with the boiling water. Give them at least 15 minutes and up to an hour, really, to rehydrate. Don't throw away the water!
3) Swirl 1 glug of olive oil into a frying pan over medium low heat and add the shallots. Saute gently for a few minutes until they start to soften, then add about half of your minced garlic along with dashes of your herbs and a bit of salt.

4) If your pan looks dry, add your second glug of oil. Turn the heat up to medium high and stir in the fresh mushrooms and the rest of the garlic. My Dad says that when cooking mushrooms, the two important tasks are to keep them hot and keep them moving. So move that spoon around the pan, adding a bit more oil if you need to.
5) A minute or so into cooking, add your wine and give the alcohol a minute to evaporate. If your kitchen doesn't smell amazing at this point, there is either something wrong with your mushrooms or with your nose.
6) Turn the heat down to medium/medium low and throw in the rehydrated mushrooms. Start adding the mushroom water, but don't put it in all at once. You may not end up using it all. Let the sauce simmer. You don't want your mushrooms swimming in liquid, but they should be wading. Watch the sauce and add liquid accordingly. Let simmer for about 3-4 minutes, throwing in the spinach a minute or so from the end so that it just wilts. The mushrooms should be beautifully brown.
7) Season the sauce to taste, toss with the pasta and serve topped with lots of cheese.