Categories
Italian Recipes Vegetarian

Pappardelle with Buttery Mushrooms

Pappardelle appears to be ‘pasta of the month’, the internet is awash with it and one can see why. Its appearance is so warm and comforting – perfect for pairing with a rich, buttery sauce. Indeed, the name Pappardelle is a derivation of the Italian verb ‘pappare’, which means to gobble. This is, in my opinion, incredibly apt considering winter pasta dishes of this variety are intended to be rather homely and comforting. Perhaps this yearning for comfort food is one of the reasons I’m very close to being addicted to mushrooms.

Though there are many recipes which feature Pappardelle and mushrooms, this particular set of instructions is a very roughly followed version of one found on BBC GoodFood. What a recipe it is too, the flavours all work together wonderfully, as one might expect. After all, lemon and parsley are an age-old combination and garlic goes well with almost anything, as long as one is being sensible. At the same time, the butter gives the dish a wonderful warmth and richness, making it a perfect selection for this time of year.

There aren’t many things I’ve cooked over the course of the past year that have been total cock ups, though there was one particularly painful batch of onion bhajis. However, and it pains me to admit this, but a batch of red velvet cupcakes produced yesterday were overwhelmingly brown in appearance and tasted a little too much like beetroot. As one might imagine, the recipe being used called for beetroot since I’m not particularly in favour of pouring a fluid ounce of red food colouring into anything intended for digestion. Surely, there must be some kind of negative health effect associated with ingesting that much colouring, but I digress. At least I can take solace in the fact that the texture of the cupcakes was perfect, which means that the recipe is fundamentally correct.

Pappardelle with Buttery Mushrooms

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 200g Pappardelle pasta

• 100g chestnut mushrooms, any strong flavoured mushroom will do

• 30g salted butter

• 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped

• A little parsley, finely chopped

• The juice of half a lemon

Method:

1. Put the pasta on to boil, this should take no more than 10 minutes. Heat up a heavy based frying pan and melt the butter, add a drizzle of olive oil to stop the butter burning. When the butter is hot begin frying the mushrooms. Cook until they are beginning to brown, add the garlic. It is very difficult to overcook mushrooms so continue to fry on a high heat until the pasta is ready. Mix the pasta in with the mushrooms and serve. Sprinkle over a little parsley and lemon juice before gobbling down.

Cost: By far the most expensive ingredient here is the pasta, but it is absolutely worth it. One could make this meal for less than £1 if one was willing to skimp on pasta quality, but in this case I’m not. As such, this dish will set you back roughly £1.60 and it is entirely worth it.

91 replies on “Pappardelle with Buttery Mushrooms”

I LOVE that the name for pappardelle is derived from ‘to gobble’ – so apt and so Italian. It makes me want to gobble up a big plate of this right now and agree, for some reason pappardelle works perfectly with more wintry flavours – sage, squash or buttery mushrooms as you’ve done here.

We must be on the same wavelength. I almost made a similar mushroom dish in lieu of the leeks/spaghetti squash last night. This looks really good! I think I’ll scrap my original plans and try this tonight. Thanks!

I do love papperdelle. I didn’t realise it was the flavour of the month so I’ll pretend I’m a trendsetter! This whole concoction looks lovely – your photography is always way above par!

As I was pondering what my kitchen screw-ups had been this past year, I burnt a pan full of caramelising onions. It seems reflecting on mistakes leads to them!

This is such perfect winter food.. the mushrooms are the perfect rich woodsy color and that slippery thick pappardelle… I don’t think we have chestnut mushrooms here?? sob… it wouldn’t be the same without I think…

this looks absolutely delish! i love the trivia about the derivative of parrardelle, too… hope you try the red velvet cupcakes again- i would love to have a great recipe for them without all the food color

Aaah, over here, the pasta is cheap, but the mushrooms can be astronomical. Apart from regular button ones (which are already $8/kg), the “gourmet” ones such as chestnut retail for (are you sitting down?)…$50/kg at the farmers’ markets!! It looks like a delicious recipe, nonetheless! 🙂

What a great way to serve pasta and mushrooms!! I’m sure it will bring out the flavours of the mushroom. I’m trying this recipe on the weekend! It will probably cost me $3 for the pasta and $5-6 for the mushrooms but I think it’s still a frugally priced meal. Great post 🙂

This looks delish! Once I’m allowed butter again…….haha! Due to my hiatus from the rules in Vienna this weekend, I’m sticking through to the weekend to make up for it! No Nasties for just a few more days!!

this looks unbelievably tasty! i recently had a great dinner very similar to this in Chicago. it also included truffles (yes, actual shaved truffle!) as well as lobster and scallops! it was to die for! all of the ingredients though are so pricey! i wish i could recreate the dish in my own kitchen!

Elaine just made this meal. It was great – perfect with some seedy bread and a bottle of beer.

You will be allowed into the kitchen at Christmas!

This recipe looks great. I love mushrooms and pasta, and mushrooms and pasta together. I wouldn’t worry too much about those cupcakes… as long as the texture was okay, who cares?

On those red velvet cupcakes you mentioned…my secret is using freeze-dried beet powder – no beet taste! Just all natural coloring. I did a version of cupcakes about 2 years back that turned out nicely with it.

If you like my recipes, photos or food please leave a comment here...