Recipe of the Day: Basil Pasta with Mushrooms

After making the fresh pasta and the ravioli on Thursday, I had some extra pasta to use on Friday. I also received these great looking Crimini mushrooms from my veggie basket from Irv & Shelly's Fresh Picks.


To make the basil pasta, I started to roll out the dough and once it was relatively thin I sprinkled julienned (thin strips) basil over the pasta, then covered with a second sheet and run through the pasta machine again to press the dough together.



This time I chose to cut it into linguini. Replacing the roller with the cutting blades, simply feed the dough in and comes out nice strips. Make sure to toss the linguini with flour or semolina to keep from sticking.

I then boiled in salted water for about 3 - 5 minute. Reserve about a cup of the water to use in the sauce. When done I tossed with a little oil to keep from sticking while I prepared the sauce. NEVER rinse pasta under water, after it is drained just toss it with a little oil to prevent it from sticking.

To prepare the sauce, I sauteed a chopped onion and a clove of garlic with the mushrooms (quartered), cooking until the mushrooms were cooked through, adding a little stock to keep from drying out. I added the pasta back to the pot, adding a little more stock and salt and pepper to taste.

It was served with a touch of freshly grated Parm on top.