Sunday, December 1, 2013

Fettuccine Boscaiola ... or in this case, spiral pasta


My beloved Boy is cooking dinner tonight. He has decided that he wants to cook more and become more proficient in the kitchen, so I'm happy for him to take over cooking and meal duties now and then.

The Boy has been talking about being in the mood for a tomato based pasta dish for days, most of this week, actually, but at the last minute decided on a creamy sauce pasta instead.  He said he wanted something with ham so I thought Boscaiola, which yes, I know is made with bacon, but still .... who can complain about bacon, right?

I went onto the interwebs in search of a recipe and came up with this which sounded tasty and easy to make.

I gave it to The Boy to read over and he seems comfortable that he can tackle it without any help from me. Anyway, I'm kicking back while he is cooking, which, let me tell you, is very nice.

Here's the recipe for this particular Boscaiola, which we are making with spiral pasta instead of fettuccine, just because The Boy did not feel like fettuccine.

Ingredients:
  • 400g dried curly fettuccine pasta
  • 250g rindless bacon rashers, thinly sliced
  • 40g butter
  • 400g cup mushrooms, thinly sliced
  • 5 shallots, ends trimmed, thinly sliced
  • 425ml pouring cream
  • 30g (1/3 cup) shredded parmesan
  • 30g (1/3 cup) shredded romano
  • Parmesan (optional), extra, to serve

Instructions:
  • Cook the pasta in a large saucepan of salted boiling water until al dente. Drain.
  • Meanwhile, cook the bacon in a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat, stirring often, for 4 minutes or until golden. Use a slotted spoon to transfer to a plate.
  • Heat the butter in the frying pan. Add the mushroom and cook, stirring often, for 5 minutes or until tender and the liquid has reduced.
  • Add the pale section of the shallot and stir to combine. Stir in the bacon and cream. Simmer for 6-7 minutes or until the mixture thickens slightly. Add the parmesan and romano, and stir until well combined.
  • Add the pasta and green section of the shallot to the sauce. Season with salt and pepper and toss until well combined. Divide the pasta among serving dishes. Top with extra parmesan.

Since it was The Boy cooking, he tends to like to follow the recipe exactly when cooking for the first time ... well, most of the time really. I'm the one who improvises.

Anyway, he did follow the recipe almost exactly, but with the shallots, since we didn't have any fresh ones, just frozen ones, he just put them in towards the end to the mushrooms, bacon and cream and cooked it all together. There was no green section of the shallot to put in at the end. It all just went in with the sauce.

He also used spiral pasta rather than fettuccine. For some reason, he did not feel like fettuccine and decided on spiral pasta instead. The spiral pasta turned out great for the sauce to coat every little spiral on it.

The recipe doesn't say so, but salt and pepper to taste is important. With adding so much pasta to the sauce, it can taste a bit bland if there's not enough salt and pepper. You don't need a lot, but a pinch or two of both really helps.

The dish turned out to be very, very tasty. It made enough for 6 serves so we have plenty of leftovers for The Boy to take some to work over the coming days for lunch too.



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