Thursday, August 16, 2007

Bertie's Mushroom Sauce

One of Freddie’s best friends from school is Bertie who is brilliant at loads of things, apart from eating mushrooms. That is, until his mum Natasha created a mushroom pasta sauce and told me about it in the school queue. An essential part of the recipe is not to let the mushroom-hater know it contains mushrooms until after it has been tasted. Freddie ate the first bowl without looking up. Once the first fierce pangs of hunger had gone, he asked for seconds.
“What’s this made of Mum?”
“Mushrooms”, I said as I filled his bowl with a second helping.
"It's one of Bertie's favourite recipes," I added, shamelessly relying on peer pressure.
He was straight on the phone to his friend.
“They tricked me into eating mushrooms. But your sauce was really good. I’m giving it 10 out of 10.”
 

 
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Bertie’s Mushroom Pasta Sauce


450g mushrooms
2 generous handfuls of parsley
3 shallots or one medium onion
1 -2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
100 ml double cream or crème fraiche
50g grated parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to season

Serve with spaghetti or linguini pasta

Wash and dry the mushrooms. Chop them roughly. Put them into a large bowl with the chopped parsley, chopped shallots and crushed garlic. Use a blender or hand-blender to turn the mushroom mixture into a mush. At this point start cooking your pasta according to instructions.Back to the mushroom mush, take a large frying pan and heat up the olive oil. Add the mixture to the pan and cook on a medium heat. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon. The mushrooms and shallots will soften and cook. Cook for at least five minutes like this. Turn off the heat. Stir in the crème fraiche or double cream.
When the pasta is al dente, drain away the water. Pour in the mushroom sauce and stir round, coating the pasta thoroughly. Add the parmesan cheese and stir round. Serve.

PS - We would still love to hear your favourite toppings for a flat mushroom.

13 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:59 PM

    Another great story. I love mushroom sauces and will certainly be giving this a go.
    Sara from farmingfriends

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  2. Ooh, this sounds delicious. I will definitely try it!

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  3. Freddie was duped! I love it! Love the flagrant use of peer pressure.

    There's a Tuscan pasta dish very similar to this one. I think the only dairy is parmesan cheese though. But I never met anything that couldn't be improved with a little creme fraiche! Another gorgeous recipe.

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  4. Anonymous7:26 AM

    Creme-fraiche always softens the flavour of things.When you are cooking for children it helps them to like something.

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  5. Ha ha! You sneak. A lovely sauce though. Try this stuffing for a flat mushroom, one of my faves:

    http://bookthecook.blogspot.com/2007/04/stuff-giants.html

    Cheers
    David

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  6. I'll have to try this with my lot, but find some subs for the creme fraiche and parmesan.....

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  7. Sounds lovely and easy! Just saying the word creme-fraiche sounds...ah creamy and satisfying!

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  8. hmmm its look tempting! thanks for dropped in my blog :)

    Lia

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  9. hmmm i guess its really yum since i love mushroom ;) btw thanks u have dropped in my blog :)

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  10. Aha ha ha ha ha - I love it! Peer pressure influence and all :) I do love pasta with mushroom sauce.

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  11. Anonymous12:46 AM

    I found yourWeb site through Alanna Kellogg's site...such a fantastic
    and original idea!!!!! Your kids are SO cute! I am definitely going to bookmark this site. Meg :-)

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  12. Hmmm, this sounds yummy, nice and creamy! This is the first time I've visitted your blog, what a great idea!

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  13. My favourite topping for field mushrooms is a mixture of grated carrots, gtated courgette, chopped mushrooms stalks, mixed up with crunchy peanut butter and soy sauce, salt an pepper. I fill up the mushrooms and the scatter over some grated cheddar, but mozzarella would be good too! They cook in about 20 minutes!

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