Monday, June 16, 2008

Wine Braised Mushrooms

Today is a rare day off for me. I got back from a mid morning crossfit workout that kinda kicked my butt. 21-15-9...Actually, I haven't been working out consistently enough not to get my ass kicked at crossfit. Ugh. Anyway, I was in the mood for some pasta! But I knew I didn't have much of anything in the fridge to coat my noodles with. I rummaged around a bit and found some roasted garlic in plenty of olive oil and lots of mushrooms. A little light bulb went off over my head.

I threw the mushroom slices in with the garlic and olive oil. And continued to rummage in my fridge. I kept checking on the 'rooms and they were looking great. I guess I could have just put the mushrooms the way they were over the pasta and called it a day but I still had some other bits and pieces in my fridge to use. I spotted old wine from one the various dinner parties E and I had given and thought it would be nice to put some in with the mushrooms. I added about a cup or so and watched it bubble away. I also spotted some left over parm cheese, an egg and some scallions.

Once the water (salted, of course) was boiling, I threw in my pasta and tasted the wine and 'rooms. The wine had cooked down quite a bit. I added a little bit of butter, salt and pepper and tasted. Wow, they were good! Once the pasta was cooked, I put it into my bowl, added the 'rooms and bit of wine that wasn't cooked off, cracked my egg on top, grated the parm on top and covered it with freshly ground pepper and scallions.

It was a fantastic pasta lunch. The egg helped the wine and cheese and scallions all adhere to the pasta. The butter added at the last minute gave it a really lovely sheen. Who knew that braising 'rooms in wine would make a fantastic sauce?

Try it sometime. I bet that even if you just braised your mushrooms in red wine and added that to a jarred basic marinara it would liven the sauce up 100%.

No comments: