Some of my favourite kinds of meals are done in a fry-pan. I will often use random foods that are left in my fridge, chuck them into the frypan and make some kind of pasta concoction. They don’t always work, but sometimes they do. This is one of the times that it did.
I had the privilege of receiving about 4kg of deliciously plump, fresh mushrooms from local Canberra mushroom growers, so I’ve been eating a lot of these babies lately.
Not that I mind, mushrooms are delicious. They have that lovely savoury flavour called ‘Umami ‘, a Japanese term meaning ‘flavoursome’. Umami is the same savoury flavour that we find in meat, making mushrooms a great part of a vegetarian dish, like I’ve created here.
I’ve combined the mushrooms with the tasty flavours of garlic, thyme, onion and feta. I also added a little cream mixed with stock and cooked the pasta in the juices instead of separately. It was really tasty. I also made it again a few days later, using more cream, no stock and adding fresh chilli and parsley as well. Fantastic! Here’s the recipe.
Mushroom, Feta & Spinach Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp oil, olive extra virgin
- 1 onion, brown or shallots, finely chopped
- 2 clove garlic crushed
- 400 g mushroom, common thinly sliced
- ¼ cup cream, pure
- 2½ cup stock, chicken or vegetable, reduced salt
- ⅛ bunch thyme, fresh (½ tbsp dry)
- 200 g pasta, high fibre vetta brand is good
- 2 cup spinach, baby
- 150 g cheese, feta crumbled
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and sauté for a few minutes until the onion is soft. Add the mushrooms and sauté for 4-5 minutes until they become soft.
- Mix the cream, thyme and stock in a container and pour over the mushrooms in the pan. Bring to the boil and add the pasta. Simmer over low heat for 5 minutes or until the pasta is cooked (Vetta pasta only takes 5 minutes to cook, other brands may take longer), stirring occasionally.
- Remove the pan from the heat and add the baby spinach, stirring until it wilts. Crumble the feta cheese over and serve.
