Monday, April 22, 2013

Pine mushrooms, pasta and not much else



This is less a recipe and more a brag about where I've just been. After a slow and sumptuous long weekend in Victoria's North East Alpine/gourmet/Twin Peaks country, we arrived home with a few little morsels of local produce. And the pick of the litter? Pine mushrooms. Big, orange and beefy. I get very excited when I can get these. It means we're on the wintery side of Autumn. It means I'm shopping somewhere far more rewarding than the local shithouse supermarkets. It means dinner is going to be delicious.


When I can get pine mushrooms, I prefer to do very little to them. In this case we also had beautiful handmade spinach pasta, and stunning Myrtleford butter with French herbs. And half a bottle of incredible Nebbiolo. Don't add that to the dish. Just drink it while you're cooking...

If you don't have handmade pasta and herbed butter you could add one or two of: garlic, blue cheese, truffle oil, parmesan, hazlenuts or just salt and pepper. But remember, less is more.

Ingredients:
  • Pine mushrooms
  • Pasta
  • Herbed butter
  • Salt and pepper
  • Parmesan
  • A dash of olive oil

Boil and salt your pasta water and add your pasta. Wash and slice the mushrooms. Then heat a little olive oil in a non-stick frying pan and throw in the mushrooms. 



Scoop a small spoonful of the butter and ogle it a little. Then add it to the mushrooms. Season with a little salt and a liberal amount of pepper. 




Once the pasta is cooked, add it to the frying pan and plop in a second spoon of butter. Toss through and serve with a small garnish of parmesan. Drink wine throughout.


1 comment:

Fulford Study Group said...

those don't look like Pine mushrooms. You sure they're not Chanterelle?