Champignons de Paris and Angel Hair
with Mâche and Comté
Champignons de Paris and Angel Hair
with Mâche and Comté
Champignons de Paris, also known as white, button or cremini mushrooms, are the most common and inexpensive variety around. Nonetheless, when seared and seasoned properly, these rich, earthy mushrooms are a real show-stealer, so I serve them center stage over angel hair pasta, with good olive oil and a sprinkle of salty French fromage. Odds are the mushrooms in your market are still covered in dirt, so unless you want to spend a bunch of time and paper towels removing it, I recommend washing them… twice. Pan-roasting these forest fungi is not difficult, but it’s often done wrong; either the pan isn’t hot enough, or it gets overfilled, which causes the mushrooms to sweat water instead of sear, cooling down the pan even more. All I’m saying is, to achieve the meaty perfection needed to carry a vegetarian dish, it is important to understand what you’re doing. So let’s go…
Difficulty:
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Serves 2
Ingredients:
¼ lb. Angel Hair Pasta
¾ lb. Cremini Mushrooms, button size (1 ½” diameter)
3 Tbsp. Grapeseed Oil
Sea Salt & White Pepper
3-4 Tbsp. Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
3 sprigs Thyme
1 clove Garlic, finely diced
¼ cup finely diced Shallot
2 Tbsp. chopped Italian Parsley, divided
Mâche Salad Greens, to taste
Comté or fresh Parmesan cheese, to taste
Technique:
•Wash the mushrooms:
oFill a large bowl with cold water, add the mushrooms and swoosh them around.
oAllow the dirt to settle to the bottom of the bowl and use your hands or a large slotted spoon to transfer them into a second bowl.
oDump out the water, rinse and repeat until they stop releasing dirt.
oDrain clean mushrooms on paper towels, trim the stems, and quarter.
•Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook according to package directions. Reserve half a cup of pasta water before draining; return reserved water and cooked angel hair to the pot and cover.
•Heat a large sauté pan on high until smoking hot, about one minute. Add grapeseed oil. It should cover the bottom of the pan.
•Spoon half of the mushrooms over the drained pasta with the remaining parsley; toss and season to taste with salt and pepper.
•Add pasta to warm bowls and garnish with the remaining mushrooms and olive oil, a few sprigs of mâche, and a light sprinkle of cheese.
Thursday, Mar 29, 2012