Tagliatelle with Porcini and Oyster Mushrooms

Tagliatelle with Porcini and Oyster Mushrooms

Tonight I used my “Duxelles Method” that I use for risotto, for a pasta dish and it came out superb.

I started by blitzing a 250g pack of chestnut mushrooms in a mini chopper with black pepper and thyme, and frying the mixture until dry and crumbly in a non stick pan. It’s incredible how much it reduces in volume. A pack of mushrooms became about one fist’s full of duxelles.

In a separate pan I roasted off porcini and oyster mushrooms until brown, cooking them in batches until they were golden and reserving some for garnish.

In that pan I cooked off an incredibly finely diced sofritto of shallot, carrot and celery. The latter two I cut on a mandolin so they were translucent to begin with.

Once this was cooked out and sticky, I deglazed with Madeira and brandy, and added the duxelles, cooked mushroom pieces and a cup of the porcini soaking water.

I reduced the liquid to almost dry, and added about 200ml of chicken stock before repeating.

Once this was reduced I added with a couple of tablespoons of creme fraiche and started to Mount with butter, Parmesan and pasta water.

I finished with some fresh parsley and dressed with some good olive oil.

Seriously if you’ve read this much, and you like mushrooms, I implore you to make a duxelles to put through your pasta and risotto. You get incredible mushroom flavour. To be honest, all the pieces of posh mushrooms could have been surplus to requirements because there’s coming flavour from the button mushrooms.