no-more-ramen:

This is a highly modifiable recipe. The picture below is what I made last night when I came in from work at 10pm. It has lots of Stuff in it other than mushrooms, but it uses the same base and took at most five minutes longer than usual, mostly because I made extra sauce; I just used half the amount of mushrooms and then added more goodies because I wanted a variety. Picture includes tri-color veggie rotini because it’s what I had, but I love this recipe with linguini!

Ingredients:

• Pasta of your choice (I use a whole box, it keeps rather well)
• 16oz sliced baby bella mushrooms (and/or other filler of choice)
• 4-6 cloves garlic (use the minced stuff from a jar! ½ tsp = 1 clove)
• ~2 tbsp flour
• ½ tsp dried rosemary
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• salt + pepper to taste
• OPTIONAL: 1 cup veggie/chicken broth or stock
• ½ – 1.5 cup heavy cream (depending on preferences, more if you don’t use broth)
• ½-1 cup Parmesan cheese

Instructions:

1. Put your water on to boil for cooking the pasta. I like to salt mine very well. Whenever it finishes, just drain it and set it aside if your sauce isn’t done yet (mine never is, but I cook low and slow).
2. In a separate skillet/pan, melt some butter or heat olive oil (other veggie oil will do). Add mushrooms and garlic, and cook for 5-10 minutes, until the mushrooms are browned and shrink down a bit and everything smells nice.
3. Add flour and stir constantly until the flour is all nice and lightly browned. This is seriously the most labor intensive part, but it doesn’t take long at all – 1-2 minutes max – and you don’t have to stir vigorously. Just make sure you don’t have big white clumps of flour.
4. OPTIONAL: Add veggie/chicken broth/stock and rosemary, thyme, oregano, salt and pepper, and stir. I keep the roasted chicken Better Than Bouillon in my fridge at all times, and it gives this just that much more flavor (I just add a cup of water and the required tablespoon BTB directly to my pan and stir. NOTE: because I use the BTB, I do not salt my sauce at all.)
5. Add heavy cream and stir. If you used broth/stock, add ½ cup – if you didn’t, use 1.5 cups. (And if you didn’t add stock/broth and haven’t added your herbs yet, do that now too)
6. Add ½-1 cup parmesan cheese, to taste. I find that the less you use, the better your leftovers will keep.
7. Let the whole thing simmer and reduce a bit. It can be a little thin, because it’s going to continue to reduce a little even after you take it off the heat!
8. Combine sauce and pasta. Preferably, dump the pasta in with the sauce so you only have one big creamy, cheesy mess to clean up, but if your pan/skillet isn’t big enough, dump the sauce on top of the pasta instead.
9. Serve and enjoy! Maybe throw a little more parm on top, you cheese-loving chef you!

The Cheater “Roux”

The most common ways to thicken a sauce/gravy are to either use cornstarch or start with a roux. I’ve never owned cornstarch in my life, and making a good roux takes a bit of a learning curve and always makes a big mess. The trick to this thick & creamy sauce is adding the flour to whatever other Stuff you’re putting in your pasta (in this case, mushrooms). The flour absorbs the liquids and coats your Stuff nicely, and then helps to thicken the sauce when you add the broth/cream!

Unfortunately, you can’t use this cheat if you don’t have other Stuff going into your dish. )=

If you’re curious about what’s in the picture, I followed all these directions BUT I only used 8oz mushrooms. When I added my broth, I also added a small bag of frozen carrots and some cooked chicken, and when all the liquid was in the pan I threw in a bag (yep, a whole dang bag) of baby spinach (mmmm spinach). If I do it again, I’ll leave the carrots out – they’re a little sweet for my tastes.