Recipe: Easy mushroom pasta

Rob’s is off hiking Half Dome today and will be gone the rest of the weekend. With all this time alone at home, it is time to try out some new recipes!

My favorite thing to cook when I am eating alone is what I call “cheesy pasta.” The recipe is never the same but always involves butter, garlic and plenty of Parmesan. Last night I made a delicious version with mushrooms based off this recipe in Gourmet. Here’s the instructions for one serving:

One cup sliced brown mushrooms
One finely chopped clove of garlic
Two tablespoons of unsalted butter
Two drops of white truffle olive oil
Dash of lemon or lime zest
Salt and pepper
Parmesan cheese to taste
Two handfuls of radiatori pasta

Start boiling the pasta. Brown the butter in a skillet before adding mushrooms, garlic, zest, salt and pepper. Saute the mushrooms until just cooked and take off heat. Drain cooked pasta and toss in pan with mushrooms and an extra pat of butter. Cook together until the pasta is has soaked up a lot of the mushroom sauces. Top with an ample serving of Parmesan cheese before eating.

I’m drooling now just thinking about how good it was! I love truffles and would readily eat cardboard if it was cooked in truffle oil! You can, of course, use any kind of pasta for this recipe. I used radiatori because it reminds me of mushroom gills. Here’s a photo of the final results.

PS: I know, I can hear my mother saying “this has no redeeming nutritional value.” It’s delicious because it is made entirely of butter and cheese. I normally eat organic salads and non-fat milk all the time, really.