Tagliatelle ai Funghi Porcini

One of my favorite pasta dishes here in Italy is their Tagliatelle ai Funghi Porcini. It's the flat, fat pasta - like fettucini but wider, with porcini mushrooms. I actually haven't found a decent dish in L.A. but it is actually quite simple to make and delicious! In my picture above, I have it with wheat spaghetti for those who are on a diet. However, you can go with the traditional tagliatelle which is made with egg and a little on the heavy side. You can also find tagliatelle that is made of just flour as well to try to avoid egg. Personally, the Barilla wheat spaghetti is quite yummy and one of the few wheat pastas that I actually like. Here we go:

Tagliatelle ai Funghi Porcini

Servings: 2

Ingredients:

100 grams of Porcini Mushrooms (hopefully you will find this in the stores... I have seen it at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods in the dry packs but try looking for the frozen ones as well.)

200 grams of Tagliatelle (these come in the little nests... an average serving per person is three nests)

Olive Oil

1/2 cup of Vegetable broth

Minced garlic

Chopped Parsley

Okay, first thing is bring a pot of water to boil for the pasta. While you are waiting on that, in a pan, add olive oil and the minced garlic. Once the flavors infuse, add the porcini mushrooms. If you get the dry pack, soak these in water for about 20 minutes before adding to pan. Cook through until sizzling but not too much that they get dried out. Add half a cup of heated vegetable broth to the pan. Normally, vegetable broth is not added to the traditional dish. This is actually something I improvised on to avoid putting too much oil. If you go to a restaurant, the dish is pretty much soaked with olive oil and although it is delicious, not so great on the waistline. This will be up to you to see if you want to add more oil or a little broth to give the plate more wetness. If you add the vegetable broth, let the pan simmer until the broth is reduced by half. Then add the chopped parsley. Turn the heat off.

Once the water is boiling, add a little salt and then the pasta for the amount of time indicated on the box. Then, drain the pasta from the water and place back in the pot. Add all the ingredients in the pan to the pot and mix well. If you see that it is drier than you prefer, add a little more olive oil. Then transfer to your plates and top it off with some more fresh parsley for taste and show. =)

Grab your fork and spoon and dig in! =)

Another great dish with the porcini mushrooms is Risotto ai Funghi Porcini. Mmmm. I can write the recipe to that one as well if you are interested but pretty much same ingredients just different carbs and procedures. =)

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!