Mushroom ragu pasta

Name: Mushroom ragu pasta
Total time: 1800 s
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 onion, finely chopped; 2 tbsp tomato paste; 400 g criminis mushrooms, sliced about 1/4 cm thick; 3 tbsp sour cream; 2 tbsp unsalted butter; 450 g dry linguine

Robert Gonzal @robert

Vancouver BC

Full disclosure: this is Chris Morocco's recipe that he made for Bon Appetit, with a few adjustments. First, I replaced the maitake mushrooms that he used with criminis. My local supermarkets don't carry maitakes, and with the price of gas being what it is, I wasn't about to drive 20 km to get them. Also, I didn't use funky double-grooved pasta tubes, and boiled plain ol' linguine instead. I also used sour cream instead of heavy cream, mainly because I shopped from memory and remembered it incorrectly. And I didn't read the recipe beforehand, so I completely guessed on ingredient quantities. Other than those changes, it's his recipe exactly. Carbon copies, right? Kidding aside, the dish turned out really, really good. Shades of vodka sauce, but a little brighter and with mushrooms, of course. Thanks Chris!

Robert Gonzal @robert

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Ingredients

30 minutes

4 servings

1onion, finely chopped
2 tbsptomato paste
400 gcriminis mushrooms, sliced about 1/4 cm thick
3 tbspsour cream
2 tbspunsalted butter
450 gdry linguine

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Steps

30 minutes

1

Add a good glug of olive oil to a large pan on medium-high heat and throw in the onion. Let fry until they're really soft and starting to brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste and continue frying until the tomato darkens and dries a little, about another 3 or 4 minutes.
2

Add the mushrooms, a good pinch of salt, and several grinds of black pepper to the pan. Stir to combine, then cook about 5 minutes until the mushrooms are soft. Stir in the sour cream and butter and turn the heat down to low. Taste, and adjust the seasoning as required.
3

Boil the linguine in a large pot of salted water. When the pasta is about 1 minute away from cooked, transfer it to the pan of sauce. Be sure to take a little pasta water doing so (and don't throw away the rest because you'll need it). Turn the pan back up to medium and toss to combine. Use the extra pasta water you reserved to adjust the consistency. I actually ended up needing more than I thought; about 2/3 of a cup. Once it looks right, serve.