Pasta with Mushroom Sauce

Introduction

Who said that in order to make amazing dishes, you have to spend hours in the kitchen? Not true! This delicious, vegetarian mushroom sauce with tomatoes, garlic, basil, parmesan cheese is very easy to make in no time.

I love mushrooms and though why not make sauce with them? But a sauce that is not too heavy or creamy, a sauce that is tangy and easy to make, and I came up with this recipe. Everything turned out amazing and everyone in my family loved it. They ate more than a portion and I ended up eating not as much as they did, but it made me happy because nothing I love more than feeding my family.

In this recipe I used baby Bella mushrooms. I wished I had dried Porcini to add but today I didn’t have any in my pantry. Please use your favorite combination mushrooms, including Porcini. This recipe will yield 2-3 servings. Enjoy!

Recipe

Ingredients

• 300-400g of your favorite combination of mushrooms (I used baby Bella)

• about 15 g of fresh basil

• about 150g of tomatoes (cherry tomatoes preferred)

• 2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

• 1/2 tablespoon of butter

• 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil

• some parmesan cheese (I used 1/3 cup, you can use more)

• some fresh parsley for garnish

• 8 oz of dried spaghetti (half a pack)

• some salt (to taste)

Instructions

1. Cook the pasta in salted water until al dente. When pasta is cooked, before draining it, save about a cup of pasta water. You will need it for the sauce later. Then set the pasta aside.

2. Preheat the pan and add drizzle olive oil on it (use about 1 to 2 tablespoons). After the oil heats up, add all of the garlic in and stir for a minute. This will infuse the oil with garlic flavor.

3. Slice the mushrooms and add them to the same pan. Add salt (to taste, but better add less now and add more later at the end if needed). Cook the mushrooms for at least 5-7 minutes and keep stirring. Most of water should evaporate, making mushrooms very flavorful.

4. After cooking mushrooms for about 5-7 minutes, add all of tomatoes in and cook everything for additional 5 minutes or until the tomatoes soften.

5. Then add basil and cook for additional 2-3 minutes.

6. Add about half of cup of pasta water in. Then add butter. Stir everything together.

7. Add pasta into the sauce. Stir everything and add the rest of pasta water in.

8. Add shredded parmesan. You have the flexibility to add more than the recipe calls for.

9. Turn off the heat and add parsley. You are all done. Enjoy!