Gifts from Friends

Our good friends John and Dennis gave us a beautiful King Bolete mushroom that they foraged up at Mt. Hood. The King Bolete is like a giant porcini mushroom. Giant! Peter and I were so excited we couldn’t wait to make something with the giant mushroom. We were up at our friend Terri’s cabin this weekend, and being up in the forest inspired us to make Papardelle pasta with mush King Bolete mushrooms sauce. Thanks to the great gifts from our friends, we and a really incredible dinner up at the mountain. We were really fortunate to have the King Bolete mushroom, but you could make this same dish with store bought porcini mushrooms.

We didn’t have our food processor with us so we rolled up our sleeves and made the pasta by hand. Fresh handmade pasta is so incredible that I really want to encourage you to try it for yourself. It’s just as fast as using hard pasta and its so much better. My first time wasn’t perfect, but after making it a couple of times with Peter I really got the hang for it and now I’m never going back. I know that everyone isn’t as fortunate as I am to have Peter as an in house kitchen coach, but I’m telling you pasta is pretty easy and learning how is well worth it.

Basic Pasta Recipe

3 ½ C flour
4 eggs
1 ½ T olive oil

Mushroom Sauce
2oz dried wild mushrooms
1 C hot water
¼ lb cut into lardoons
1 yellow onion, sliced
1 shallot, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, sliced
½ C red wine
1 C reserved mushroom water
1 ½ C chicken or beef broth
1 C heavy cream

½ C parmesan cheese, grated

Make a well with the flour, crack the four eggs into the center and add the olive oil.

Using a fork slowly pull the flour in from the sides of the bowl and mix it with the eggs. Once it starts to come together start kneading it. Here is were you want to inlist a dinner guest. You need to knead the the dry dough for about ten minutes untill it becomes a seemless single ball that is soft and pliable.
After kneading it wrap it in some plastic wrap and let it rest while you get everything else ready.

We ran the pasta through the pasta machine to the thinnest setting. I cut the sheets into 12" sections, rolled them up and then cut the rolls into 1/2" noodles. Use a little corn meal or flour to keep the noodles from sticking. At this point we started the water and salted it well.

In a large saute pan you are going to start the mushroom sauce.

Peter will fill this section tomorrow.

mmmmm.