Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Sun dried tomato and mushroom pasta in a garlic and basil sauce

I found this recipe here but copied it into metric because it was too hard to follow in American measurements. 

Serves 4



Get This -

2 tablespoons olive oil
200g mushrooms, sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
100g sun-dried tomatoes, diced
2 chicken stock cubes (use vegetable for vegetarian version)
2 cups boiling water
1/2 cup half and half (may need to add another 1/2 cup)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon dried basil (or up to 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil)
fettuccine for 4

NOTE:
WHAT IS HALF AND HALF? Half and half is the US milk product that combines half milk half cream to form a lighter cream (unlike heavy cream). To make 1 cup of half and half, combine 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup regular cream (heavy, or whipping cream).


Do This -


  1. Heat olive oil on medium-high heat, add sliced mushrooms and garlic and cook for about 3 minutes. Add diced sun-dried tomatoes. Reduce heat.
  2. Dissolve 2 chicken stock cubes in 2 cups of boiling water. Add the broth to the pan and cook on medium heat until the mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes absorb some of the broth and the broth reduces somewhat. Add half and half, heavy cream and bring to boil just for a short moment. Add Parmesan cheese and cook the sauce, stirring, for a couple of minutes, on low-medium heat until the cheese melts. Add the basil.
  3. If your sauce is too thick at this point - add another 1/2 cup half and half. If your sauce looks thin to you - do not continue simmering the sauce to thicken it as you will be adding pasta shortly (in the next step) - and pasta will absorb some of the sauce liquid. Even if the sauce looks thin now, it will not be so thin once you add pasta.
  4. Cook fettuccine according to the package instruction. Drain and rinse in cold water (this will stop the cooking). Add the fettuccine into the sauce and continue cooking the sauce with the pasta in it, on medium heat, for a couple of minutes (or more - to achieve the desired thickness) stirring constantly to coat well.
Note: Do not add salt to the creamy sauce because it should already be salty enough from the chicken cubes. Check at the end when the sauce is done to see if some salt is needed.