Orecchiette with Mushroom Sauce

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Orecchiette with Mushroom Sauce

Orecchiette with Mushroom Sauce is a traditional Italian recipe for a classic vegetarian dish of orecchiette (ear) pasta with a mushroom sauce. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic Italian version of: Orecchiette with Mushroom Sauce.

prep time

15 minutes

cook time

20 minutes

Total Time:

35 minutes

Serves:

Rating:

Tags : Wild Food Sauce Recipes Vegetarian Recipes Italy Recipes

Orecchiette are a distinctive Puglian type of pasta shaped roughly like small ears, hence the name (orecchio, ear, orecchiette, little ears). They're about 2cm across, slightly domed, and their centres are thinner than their rims, a characteristic that gives them an interestingly variable texture, soft in the middle and somewhat more chewy outside. Because of the shape and the texture they go particularly well with mushrooms.

Ingredients:

300g orecchiette pasta
250g mixed mushrooms (chestnut, porcini, shiitake, chanterelle, matsutake, morel)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
generous pinch of chopped calamint (or thyme)
olive oil
60ml grappa
100ml crème fraîche
parmesan, nutmeg, parsley, truffle oil and black pepper to garnish

Method:

Put a pan of water to boil and slice the mushrooms (the idea is to have as many flavoursome mushrooms as possible. If you can only get white mushrooms and chestnut add some re-constituted dried porcini to give the dish some 'pep').

Once the water is boiling add salt and the pasta. Stir to keep the pasta from sticking and cook until not quite al dente. Drain and set aside (it will finish cooking in the mushroom mixture).

Warm olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pan, add the mushrooms, garlic and calamint and fry gently. Add the grappa, stir into the mushrooms and cook until the alcohol has evaporated. Add the crème fraîche and stir-in the pasta. Cook for a few minutes and transfer to a serving plate. Finish by garnishing with parmesan cheese, grated nutmeg, chopped parsley, truffle oil and freshly-ground black pepper.