We have started a tradition… every New Year for the past three years all our friends pack up the cars and head off to the most beautiful gite in Normandy. There is a massive kitchen with a huge table that all our families can tit around, log fires and a giant play barn for the kids, who go off and make up plays for us to watch. All we do is eat and drink wine! Jason, my best friend Angela’s husband, and I are happy to spend the whole time in the kitchen, either cooking together or taking it in turns. One New Year’s Day we made this pasta dish.
Ingredients – serves 2
- 30 g (generous 1 oz) dried porcini
- mushrooms
- 500 ml (17 H oz) boiling water
- 100 g (3 1/2 oz) mini portabello
- mushrooms
- 100 g (355 oz) wild or oyster
- mushrooms (use your favourite
- varieties)
- 150 g (5 oz) fettuccine
- olive oil, for frying
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 150 ml (1/2 pint) double cream
- truflie oil, to taste
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
Preparation method
- Cover the porcini mushrooms with the boiling water and leave for at least zo minutes to soften and puff up. Chop the portobello and wild or oyster mushrooms.
- Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil and cook the fettuccine until al dente following the instructions on the packet.
- While the pasta is cooking, heat a frying pan with a little olive oil, add the garlic and then the chopped mushrooms.
- Add the soaked porcini mushrooms and the mushroom stock water. Simmer and reduce for about 15 minutes.
- Add the cream and simmer and reduce again until the sauce thickens. Season and stir through a few drops of truffle oil.
- Mix the sauce and the pasta together and serve immediately.
