It’s pine mushroom season once again and despite a rather drastic warning by health authorities to stay away from mushroom foraging this year due to an increase in growth of poisonous mushrooms in Victoria, there are still some delicious milky-capped, orange-bellied fungi around the joint to be picked and consumed (you just need to make sure you know what you’re doing!).
We’ve published a few pine mushroom pasta recipes previously, but none like this. After a chat with D.O.C. Deli’s Alberto Biscaro, we’ve added parmesan cream into the mix – a heavenly concoction which, once you’ve tried it, you won’t look back.
PLEASE NOTE: We foraged our Pine Mushrooms around the pine trees of Red Hill along the Mornington Peninsula, but if you’re not confident picking the mushrooms yourself, you can always head to the markets or specialty food shops to pick up your pine mushrooms. Otherwise, using any of your favourite mushrooms (swiss brown, portobello etc etc) will do nicely.
Serves 2
Ingredients:
For the parmesan cream:
1 cup milk
1 cup cream
1 cup grated parmigiano reggiano cheese
For the pasta:
200g dried pappardelle (we used the dried De Cecco brand dried egg pappardelle)
50g butter
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
4 or five sprigs thyme
300g pine mushrooms, brushed and sliced
½ bunch flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
To garnish:
Parmigiano reggiano, grated
Finely chopped parsley
sea salt flakes and cracked pepper, to taste
Method:
- For the parmesan cream: the night before serving, place all parmesan cream ingredients in a saucepan and simmer on a low heat, stirring, for 30-45 minutes, making sure mixture doesn’t burn. pass through a sieve and place in a bowl, cover and place in refrigerator overnight for the flavours to develop. Before making the pasta, remove from fridge and warm up slightly before passing through a sieve again to ensure extra smoothness.
- Cook the pappardelle in salted boiling water until al dente. Drain (this particular brand doesn’t take long to cook so make sure you watch it).
- Meanwhile, sauté the garlic and chilli flakes in the butter in a deep frying pan on low heat. Once translucent, Add the thyme and the mushrooms until soft and cooked through. Add the parmesan cream and parsley and cook for a further minute or two.
- Add pappardelle to the pan and make sure the pasta is coated evenly with the mushroom sauce. Season and serve topped with parmesan and parsley.