Nov 18, 2020
Rocker Mushroom Carbonara
Ingredients
1 glug olive oil
2 tbsp butter
350 g portobello mushrooms (sliced)
2 garlic cloves (minced)
2 shallots (peeled and diced)
400 g pasta – spaghetti is the most common pasta, but you can also use fettuccine, rigatoni, linguine, or bucatini
3 egg yolks
1 egg (yolk and white)
Handful of sage leaves
Handful chopped parsley
120 g parmesan
Directions
In a nonstick pan, fry the mushrooms for 7–8 mins in olive oil until they turn a rich, golden colour.
Add the butter and the sage and cook until crispy. Reduce the heat, add the shallots and garlic, and cook for another two minutes. Set aside.
Bring a pot of salted water to the boil and cook your pasta for 10–12 minutes. Drain your pasta around a minute shy of al dente. Keep a couple of cups of pasta water.
In a small bowl, whisk the egg and add a cup of the pasta water.
Add the pasta to the pan with the mushroom mix and combine. Remove from heat to cool slightly. Then add the egg mix, stir and add cheese. Apply a little heat to thicken and coat the pasta.
Garnish with the parsley, a little salt and plenty of pepper.
Recipe by Darren Robertson
Jun 22, 2020
Mushroom Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Burnt Butter Sauce
Ingredients
2 medium sweet potatoes
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp salt flakes
Flour for dusting
250 g Swiss brown and button mushrooms, chopped in quarters
10 sage leaves
2 tbsp toasted pinenuts (optional)
½ lemon
50 g butter
Grated Parmesan
Directions
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Poke a few holes in the sweet potatoes with a fork, and then bake them for at least 1 hour on a bed of rock salt in the oven until they are tender and the skin starts to look wrinkly.
While the potato is still warm, peel the skin away from the flesh and set aside to cool slightly.
If you have a potato ricer, put the sweet potatoes through this. Otherwise you can use a fine sieve and push the potato through with a ladle or wooden spoon.
Place the flour on a board, or your kitchen bench. Make a well in the centre and add the riced / sieved sweet potatoes to the well. Season with salt and pepper.
Using your hands, work the sweet potato into the flour until it’s fully combined. You don’t want the dough to be sticky so keep adding flour gradually until you get a nice dry dough. This could take quite a bit of extra flour.
Once fully combined, roll the dough into a ball and cut it into 4 even pieces. Roll each piece into a long sausage, each about a finger in thickness.
Cut the rolls of dough into 2cm little pillows of gnocchi, and gently toss each piece into some flour on your work bench to ensure that it’s dry. At this point you could also use a gnocchi board or fork to press grooves into each piece of gnocchi to make it more professional looking but this is optional and tastes just as good without!
To cook the gnocchi, bring a large pot of water to the boil and add the salt. Blanch the sweet potato gnocchi in salted boiling water until they all float. Then drain, reserving a little of the cooking water.
In a large frying pan, over a high heat, add a splash of olive oil and a teaspoon of butter, add the quartered mushrooms and cook for a few minutes until golden. Spoon out the mushrooms into a bowl.
Using the same frying pan, add the cooked gnocchi and sear until crispy. Add the remaining butter, pine nuts, sage leaves and mushrooms you just set aside. Cook until the butter starts to burn. Then add lemon juice and Parmesan and serve.
TIPS
• Putting the potatoes through a sieve or potato ricer is a vital step to making gnocchi, as this breaks down the starch
• If you make gnocchi often, a potato ricer is a fairly inexpensive kitchen tool that is handy to have
Oct 9, 2019
Fajita chicken & mushroom pasta
Ingredients
375 g farfalle pasta
3 tbsp olive oil
300 g cup mushrooms, thickly sliced
2 chicken breast fillets, trimmed, thinly sliced across the grain
1 brown onion, halved, thinly sliced
2 tbsp fajita seasoning
1 red capsicum, cut into thin strips
400 g jar tomato pasta sauce
¾ cup chicken stock
2 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley, optional
Sour cream and corn chips, to serve
Directions
Cook pasta in a large saucepan of boiling, salted water following packet instructions.
Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large, non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add mushrooms, cook, stirring occasionally 5 minutes or until just start to colour. Remove to a plate. Add 2 teaspoons oil and half the chicken. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 3 minutes, or until browned. Remove to a plate. Repeat with oil and remaining chicken.
Add remaining oil to the hot pan with onion. Cook, stirring occasionally for 4 minutes until soft. Add seasoning. Cook, stirring for 30 seconds. Add the capsicum, pasta sauce and stock. Return mushrooms and chicken. Bring to simmer, simmer gently for 2 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.
Drain the pasta reserving 1 cup cooking liquid. Return the pasta to the pan, add the mushroom mixture, stir to combine, adding the reserved cooking liquid to adjust the consistency to your liking. Stir through parsley, season. Spoon into bowls, top with sour cream and crumble over corn chips. Serve.
Aug 28, 2019
Ricotta and Mushroom Upside-Down Cannelloni
Ingredients
6 fresh lasagna sheets
½ cup Mozzarella cheese, shredded
Freshly grated Manchego or Parmesan cheese, for serving (optional)
FILLING
200 g white cup mushrooms, cooked (1x punnet)
100 g spinach
300 g ricotta cheese
1 egg
50 g grated Parmesan or Manchego cheese
Pinch nutmeg or cinnamon
3 garlic cloves, minced
½ lemon, zested and juiced
½ tsp salt
Black pepper, to taste
Tomato Sauce
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 punnet cherry heirloom tomatoes
500 ml passata
Handful basil leaves
Salt, to taste
Black pepper, to taste
Directions
Preheat oven to 180C (fan forced).
Heat 1 tbsp oil and butter in an ovenproof large baking dish or pan over medium heat and sauté mushrooms till golden. After a couple of minutes, turn off the heat and add the spinach, stirring to combine. The spinach will cook using the residual heat. Set the mushroom and spinach mix aside for the filling.
Add the second tbsp of oil and butter in the same pan on a medium heat. Add the garlic and tomatoes and sauté till the tomatoes blister. Keep stirring the garlic so it doesn’t burn. Add passata and simmer for 2 minutes to bring the flavours together, then remove from heat and add basil.
To make the filling, add the cooked mushrooms and filling ingredients in a large bowl and mix well to combine using your hands. Season with salt and pepper
To assemble, lay out the lasagna sheet with the shorter end in front of you.
Place a generous handful of filling onto the lasagna sheet. Using a brush or your fingers, dab some water on the end furthest away from you, then roll up starting from the end closest to you. Finish with the seal down.
Roll them up so they are about 3 times thicker than an average cannelloni size.
Continue with remaining lasagna sheets. Then, cut them into sections (like mini rolls), approx. 3cm high.
Spoon the tomato sauce onto the base of the baking dish. Place the rolls around the base so they’re standing close together and spoon a little of the extra sauce over the top.
Bake for 20 minutes, remove from oven and scatter with mozzarella. Return to oven for 10 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and golden.
Finish with more fresh basil leaves.
Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.
Jul 4, 2019
Mushroom Bolognese
Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
2 medium brown onions, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves
3 rashers bacon
3 tbsp tomato paste
500 g flat, Swiss Brown or Portobello mushrooms, chopped (see tip)
750 g beef mince
3 400g cans diced tomatoes
3 tsp dired oregano
Directions
Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, cook 5 minutes or until softened. Add garlic and bacon, cook 3 minutes. Add the tomato paste, cook stirring for 1 minute. Add mushrooms, increase heat to high and cook, stirring often for 4 minutes, until tender.
Add the mince, cook, stirring with a wooden spoon until mince changes colour. Add the tomatoes and oregano. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low. Simmer, uncovered for 30 minutes or until thickened. Season.
Spoon half the Bolognese into a freezer-safe container for another meal. Stir the rest through cooked pasta. Serve sprinkled with parmesan and fresh basil.
Tip You can roughly chop mushrooms by hand, alternately pulse them in a food processor.
Flavour change – for a Mexican twist add 2 tbs Mexican spice to your Bolognese in step 2 when you add the mince.
Freezer tip Bolognese with freeze for up to 3 months.
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