Pasta with ceps

The cep is one of the best - and most available - wild mushrooms.  Known traditionally in the UK as the 'penny bun' or as 'porcini' in Italy or 'king bolete' in the USA, the Latin name - Boletus edulis - means 'superior edible mushroom'. 

My local greengrocer has had fresh ceps for a couple of months now, and I finally got round to buying some this weekend.  Inspired by an excellent new cookbook - Mushroom - Nick Sandler and Johnny Acton (review forthcoming) - I wanted to do something simple and tasty with them.
The original recipe called for the garlic to be roasted with olive oil then squeezed out to a paste.  However, I didn't really want to put the oven on just for this, so used less garlic than called for in the recipe and just added it to the pan.

While they are expensive (£15 a kilo), £2 bought me enough for dinner for the two of us.  Quick to prepare, it was an ideal mid-week dinner, along with a green salad.  A glass of red wouldn't have gone amiss but I'm currently on the wagon during the week .

Pasta with ceps
(serves 2)
A handful of pinenuts
1 shallot, finely diced (or a couple of spring onions finely sliced)
A good glug of olive oil
2-4 ceps - not too big and woody, checked for maggots (ugh), brushed clean and sliced
2 cloves garlic crushed to a paste with salt
2-3 fluid ounces double cream
Salt and pepper
A handful of parsley, roughly chopped

Pasta (tagliatelli, spaghetti or linguine) - cooked according to the packet
Olive oil to dress

Begin by dry-frying the pine nuts in a pan for a few minutes until golden brown - don't let them burn!  This releases some of the oils in the nuts and really does improve their flavour.  Set aside.

Heat the oil in a large pan and gently cook the shallot/spring onion until soft.  Turn up the heat to medium high and throw in the mushrooms.  Allow to cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally - they should soften nicely, exude some liquid which should then evaporate off.

Add the garlic and cook for a minute more - keep stirring so as not to burn the garlic.  Add the cream, plenty of seasoning and most of the parsley.  Allow to the cream to bubble and reduce a little.  I guarantee this will fill your kitchen with the most wonderful aroma.

Drain the pasta, toss in olive oil and plate-up.  Pour the cream and mushrooms onto the pasta, scatter the pinenuts over and sprinkle with the remaining parsley.  

It really feels like a luxurious dinner, but is in fact relatively cheap! 

tags: pasta  mushroom  cep  

links: digg this    del.icio.us    technorati    reddit