World Pasta Day - Mushroom Orecchiette with an Asiago Cream Sauce

Apparently it’s World Pasta Day… I don’t really need an excuse to eat pasta, but I will obviously take one!

I found some amazing mushrooms when I was at the farmers market (and since I wasn’t making dinner for my mushroom hating sister) I went a little crazy!

I picked up some wild maitake mushrooms and cinnamon cap mushrooms, and then some farmed cremini mushrooms.

Since it’s getting cold outside a warm creamy bowl of pasta seemed like the best possible idea.

Before I started to prep the mushrooms I threw a large pot of water on high heat to bring it to a boil.

Then I sliced the up the cremini and maitake mushrooms into large similarly sized pieces.

For the cinnamon caps I removed the base where they are attached, and separated them.

I pan roasted all the mushrooms in small batches with a little bit of olive oil over a medium flame.

The water in the other pot reached a boil so I dropped in about a cup of the orecchiette, it’s a pretty thick noodle so it takes 10-12 minutes to cook.

Once all the mushrooms are browned I put them back in the pan and added about 1/2 a cup of heavy cream and put it on a low flame.

I added a little salt and pepper, as well as about 1/4 cup of fresh chopped thyme and oregano.

I let the cream infuse with the herbs and mushrooms for about 5 minutes, then slowly added 1/3 a cup of grated asiago into the pan.

Once the pasta was finished I drained it, dropped the noodles straight into the pan, and let the the whole mixture combine over a low heat.

Then a sprinkled the whole thing with some fresh flat leaf parsley, and serve with a touch more grated asiago.