Mushroom Fettuccine

We finally found a home for our dried fettuccine in this creamy and delicious mushroom pasta.  The base for this recipe is a super simple bechamel sauce.  It's a great base sauce to have in your repertoire.  Trust me, it's easy, and a bit healthier than making white sauces with heavy cream.  There is of course butter though...

For a delicious dinner for 4 you will need: 

1lb of pasta 

2 lbs of mixed mushrooms

1/2 lb of sausage (casings removed)

1/2 onion

2 cloves of garlic

4 cups of baby spinach

1/2 stick of butter

4 tablespoons of flour

2 cups of milk

pinch of nutmeg

olive oil

salt and pepper

Parmesan cheese

You are of course welcome to use any types of mushrooms that you like.  I used crimini, portabello, and oyster mushrooms.  

Portabellos have dark gills on the bottom that will turn everything brown.  

I suggest scraping them off with a spoon to avoid any discoloration.

Just clean and chop up the mushrooms in similar sizes so they cook evenly.

Before we can cook the mushrooms, we need to brown the sausage.  Heat some olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat and add the sausage.  If your stove is as weak as mine, this is also probably a good time to heat a pot of salted water for the pasta.

While the sausage cooks, chop up some onion and garlic.

You want to brown the meat, but not cook it completely at this point.

Once browned but still a little pink, add the onion, garlic and mushrooms.  You might need to add a drop more oil if you are using a lean sausage such as chicken or turkey.  I used pork sausage which rendered plenty of fat so no additional oil was needed.

Season well with salt and pepper and cook down until browned and awesome.  Remember, don't mess with the shrooms, just let them sit in the pan.  The more you stir, the less they brown. 

While the mushrooms cook away it's time to make the sauce.  You only need a few pantry staples to create this classic French Mother Sauce.  

Now unfortunately I had to work a bit quickly so there aren't any pictures, but again, it's pretty easy.  You will need two pots.  Place the milk in one, and heat, but don't boil.  Technically you want the milk to be scalding, but not bubbling...  Next, in the other pot, you'll need to make a roux.  Just cook the butter and flour together in a sauce pot until the raw flour flavor is cooked away.  Maybe 3-5 minutes at the most.  Don't brown the roux too much and make sure that you continue to stir.  You can find more detailed instructions in this earlier post.

Next, slowly add in the warm milk to the roux and continue to whisk.  Eventually the sauce will thicken to the right consistency.  To check, see if the sauce coats the back of a wooden spoon.  Season with some nutmeg, salt and pepper, and you're all set.  

Easy, right?  Set the sauce aside while you finish the rest.  You're probably ready to cook the pasta around this time as well.  

By now hopefully the mushrooms are cooked down and ready to rock.

Add the spinach to the same pan and wilt down.

Once the spinach is wilted, add the bechamel sauce to the pan.

Then mix with your cooked pasta and serve topped with Parmesan cheese.  Voila.  We just whipped this up with some of our favorite ingredients, but the possibilities are endless once you know the basics.  Let us know if you make the recipe with something else.