Casarecce With Eggplant, Mushroom & Basil
My children and I get a lot of exercise five days per week – we walk to and from school, rain or shine! The walk takes about 25 minutes. Read more
Posts tagged ‘mushrooms’
Aug 17
Sep 17
Aaron's Chilli, Mushroom & Chorizo Pasta
Just to get your attention, I’m going to say first off that if you love Italian comfort-style food, you’re going to love this recipe for chilli, mushroom and chorizo pasta. It comes from MasterChef Australia magazine, issue #5, and is a creation of former MasterChef Australia contestant Aaron Harvie. I have to admit that while watching this season’s MasterChef, Aaron was not one of my top favorites, especially when Marion lost to him over the satay sauce! However, the recipe he included in this month’s MasterChef magazine makes me realize that Aaron isn’t actually that bad. His food dream is to open a pasta bar, so he gets all my good luck and respect because I just love pasta.
Aaron states in the description of this particular recipe that this is a great pasta to curl up on the couch with for a night at home (I totally agree). His inspiration comes from his local deli’s “amazing” Portuguese chorizo.
May 17
Spaghetti With Mushrooms And Garlic
This is one of my all-time favorite ways to enjoy spaghetti. My husband originally found this recipe while looking for truffle recipes. That original recipe used olive oil, garlic, parsley, basil and truffles tossed with spaghetti. But since truffles aren’t readily available and are quite expensive, the truffles can easily be substituted with another mushroom. I’ve previously used button mushrooms; this time I used baby portobello mushrooms.
The recipe is really easy and is one of those that you can’t really screw up. You can add all the ingredients based on your own tastes. I’ll post a basic recipe, but note that I can’t give you the exact amounts because I never measure them!
The flavor of the mushrooms really stand out in this dish; it is the most prevalent taste, followed by the garlic and herbs. A sprinkling of grated Parmesan cheese finishes off the taste really well.
Spaghetti With Mushrooms And Garlic
Serves 2-ishIngredients
2 servings uncooked spaghetti (maybe a little more?)
2-4 tablespoons olive oil
1-1 1/2 teaspoons dried parsley
1-1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 ounces baby portobello mushrooms, or button, finely chopped
Grated Parmesan cheeseMethod
In a medium saucepan or skillet, add olive oil, herbs, garlic and mushrooms. Cook, uncovered, over low-medium heat until it begins to simmer; remove from heat.Meanwhile, cook spaghetti according to package directions. Drain. Toss with mushroom mixture until thoroughly coated. Serve with a sprinkling of grated Parmesan cheese.
If I have leftover olive oil after plating, I usually just toss it out after making sure there are no more chunks of garlic and mushrooms.
If you try this, let me know. It’s been my favorite for years!
May 5
Pizza With Mozzarella, Mushrooms & Spinach
I really like making my own pizzas because I can add as much or as little of any ingredient that I like. I really like mushrooms and cheese, so you’ll see a lot of those on any pizza that I make!
I used a store-bought refrigerated pizza dough as the base for this pizza, and a simple tomato sauce. I sprinkled two minced cloves of garlic on top of the sauce and a sprinkling of dried thyme. Then, I added a good layer of shredded mozzarella cheese, chopped fresh baby spinach and sliced cremini mushrooms. On top of that I added a sprinkling of dried oregano and a little bit more cheese. I baked the pizza for 12 minutes at 400F.
I don’t have exact measurements of each ingredient that I used, like I said, that’s the great thing about making pizzas – you don’t really need a recipe. My pizza was a little too herby because I went a little crazy with the oregano, but it’s a nice change from frozen store-bought pizzas. :)
Apr 29
Healthy Eating & Morel Mushrooms
My mom is staying a few days with me this week and is doing some cooking for me. That’s great because I’m not the best cook; I much prefer to bake! I just wanted to share the meal she made for me last night, and later in the post I’d like to share a photo of a bag full of morel mushrooms that my dad found in the woods behind his and mom’s house.
But first, last night’s dinner. My mom has turned to a diet of organic and healthy foods, so she decided to cook up some samples of what she’s been eating for me.
We had organic sweet potato soup (swirled with cinnamon and dotted with mini marshmallows), steamed broccoli and cauliflower and a lightly seasoned salmon fillet. It was really yummy!
And now the morel mushrooms. As everyone knows, it’s morel season now and my dad found quite a few good-sized morels in the woods behind my parents’ house in the country.
The one lying in the very front is approximately six inches long! While my mom has been here with me, my dad has been at home feasting on these morels!
Mar 27
Portobello Mushroom Burgers & Baked Onion Rings
Our dinner last night was exceptionally tasty. I just have to blog about it! The pictures were taken in late evening natual light so they’re not that great, but it’s better than what our artificial kitchen lighting would have been.
Anyway, these two recipes are ones that I have recently found on Land O’ Lakes recipe index and TasteSpotting.com. Grilled portobello mushroom burgers and oven-baked onion rings.
The recipe for grilled portobello mushrooms is posted here (they spelled portobello as “portabella”, but I’m pretty sure I’ve spelled the correct way?). The mushrooms are coated with melted butter, chopped garlic and chopped fresh basil, then grilled. They are then accompanied by romaine lettuce and a sliced tomato on a whole wheat bun. The recipe also called for onion slices, but I forgot about them!
We don’t have a real grill, so I used our little George Foreman grill that my cousin gave us for Christmas in 2006.
This is a delicious, meaty and juicy alternative to hamburger. We’re not vegetarians here, but this mushroom burger is good enough to make us turn into vegetarians!
Next on the menu, oven-baked onion rings, which I originally found on TasteSpotting.com; the recipe is posted here, at Le Petit Pierogi. The neat thing about these onion rings is that they are baked, not fried. Their coating of panko bread crumbs ensures that you’ll get a nice crunch from these onion rings.
They weren’t exceptional, but I loved that they were homemade and oven-baked, and they were a nice pairing for the mushroom burgers.
