I made a dinner tonight that I am so proud of – I really love the way this dish came out. My daughter, Kylie, is not a big fan of pasta and is definitely not a fan of mushrooms. She had to work tonight, so thought it would be the perfect time to experiment in making a mushroom cream sauce and serve it over bucatini. Dennis loves pasta as much as I do, so making it on a night that Kylie is out is always a good idea.

I love the bucatini noodles. They are a bit thicker than spaghetti noodles and they are hollow in the center. In case you haven’t tried them, below is a picture of what they look like in their dry form.

It has been really rainy and chilly in San Diego and I wanted to make a rustic dish that would satisfy after a day of bad weather.

This dinner actually cooked rather quickly. I’d say it was done in under 30 minutes for sure, maybe even under 25 minutes. It would be great after a long day when you didn’t want to spend a great deal of time in the kitchen cooking but wanted a dinner that would satisfy and even impress. I would even serve this to my Dinner Club (The Del Mar Dinner Club).

As soon as I set my pot of water on the stove to boil, I started working on my sauce. I began by melting a few tablespoons of butter in a large skillet. One the butter was melted, I added two 16-ounce packages of mushrooms. I chose one package of cremini mushrooms and one package of white mushrooms … I bought them already sliced which saved on the time. I added a teaspoon of kosher salt and a teaspoon of pepper to the mushrooms and let them sauté for about 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, I added a large shallot (that I minced) and four cloves of garlic (that I minced) and sautéd them along with the mushrooms for another minute. After that, I added 3/4 cup of heavy cream, 1/2 cup Pinot Grigio, and 2 teaspoons of flour. Once I stirred that together, I added 1/2 cup of grated parmesan and turned the heat to low to let it simmer.

I put my noodles into the pot of boiling water for 11 minutes and immediately took them out of the water and placed them directly into the sauté pan with the mushroom sauce.

As soon as I added the noodles to the pan with the mushrooms, and before mixing the noodles into the mushroom mixture, I added 1/4 cup of grated parmesan – which I tossed with the hot noodles. I then tossed the noodles, coated in parmesan, into the mushroom cream sauce and garnished the pasta with fresh minced parsley.

I placed the pasta in serving bowls with a little more fresh parsley and shards of fresh parmesan.

I served the pasta with crusty rustic bread and olive oil for dipping the bread into.

I can honestly say that this pasta dish will go into my cookbook when I write it. I was that impressed with it. You’d have to try it yourself to let me know if you think it’s that good as well. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 1 lb. dry bucatini pasta

• 2 16-ounce packages of mushrooms (cremini and white)

• 3 tablespoons butter

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1 teaspoon pepper

• 1 very large shallot (or 2 small), minced

• 4 cloves garlic, minced

• 3/4 cup heavy cream

• 1/2 cup Pinot Grigio

• 2 teaspoons flour

• 1/2 cup plus 1/4 cup grated parmesan

• 3 tablespoons fresh parsley, minced

• shards of parmesan

Directions

Boil water for pasta. While water is boiling and noodles are cooking, sauté mushrooms in 3 tablespoons butter for 4-5 minutes over medium-high heat. Add shallot and garlic and sauté another minute. Add heavy cream, wine and flour. Mix together. Add 1/2 cup grated parmesan and stir. Reduce heat to low and simmer while noodles cook.

Once noodles are cooked, scoop them out of the pasta pot directly into the mushroom cream sauce. Before mixing noodles into sauce add 1/4 cup grated parmesan. Coat noodles with parmesan before tossing together with cream sauce. Garnish with minced fresh parsley and shards of fresh parmesan.

If you are not a big fan of pasta, I think this sauce would be wonderful served over chicken as well. Enjoy!

Until next time, Kris