If you love a generous plate of white sauce pasta then this is a definite must try.
Ingredients:
Mushrooms – 1 packet/200 g
Milk toned – 1 l
Butter
Maida / all purpose flour
Olive oil
Garlic cloves – 5
Onion – 1
Garlic powder
Oregano
Chilli flakes
Optional – broccoli, bell peppers, olives, paprika
Recipe:
Wash mushrooms thoroughly and chop them. The first and foremost step is to dry roast them on the stove top to sweat it out. A little oil could also be added to this step. Once all the water has evaporated keep it aside.
Add olive oil to a pan and sautee some chopped garlic or garlic powder. Add onions and let them turn translucent.
Add mushrooms to the mix and keep aside.
In another pan,melt some butter and slowly add 2 tablespoons maida in parts. The trick is to swiftly keep stirring this mix continuously. Don’t add all maida at once, let the butter dissolve it in parts.
We need to add milk to a smooth mixture rather than a crumpled mix so if your mixture has coagulated, add in some olive oil or butter if you don’t mind and let it become runny again. Then add milk in small parts as explained in the previous paragraph.
It’s important to add only 1-2 cups of milk at this moment, more can be added later.
Add mushrooms and sauteed onions and garlic to this mix and let the flavours get absorbed.
Make you pasta, I made farfalle as that’s my favourite pasta shape (side note: it does make the dish more appealing to me)
Preserve the pasta water and before it is al dente, take the pasta and add it to the cream. Pour half of the pasta water right now and reserve half of it for later to be added at the last stage.
Let the pasta cook in cream so that it absorbs the flavours as well.
You can separately blanch some broccoli or sautee bell peppers or any vegetable of your choice. This is an optional step and the pasta is heavenly even without it.
Add the remaining pasta water, extra toppings and seasonings and it’s ready to be served.
Pro tip 1: Make it in advance and refrigerate it for a few hours and reheat it to enjoy it at its peak flavour.
Pro tip 2: Add some cream and grate some cheddar to make it even more creamy and delicious. I skipped that part only for health reasons as I didn’t want to increase the calorie content of the dish.
Enjoy your food! š
