Handmade Pappardelle with Creamy Mushroom Sauce

The delicate, fresh pappardelle noodles in this recipe go great with this creamy mushroom sauce. In this case, shiitake, oyster, and cremini mushrooms were used, but feel free to experiment and use whatever mushrooms you like (morels would also be great).

Ingredients

Mushroom Sauce Mushrooms (in this case Shiitake, Oyster, and Cremini) Diced onion Parsley Basil Garlic White Wine Parmigiano Reggiano Cream Milk Lemon

Salt Pepper Olive Oil Pasta 6 Eggs 2 cups all purpose flour 2 cups semolina flour 1/2 tsp sea salt Warm water (as needed) 1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions

Mushroom Sauce

This is a very quick sauce to make. Start by sautéing your onion and garlic in olive oil, then add your chopped mushrooms once the onion and garlic have started to caramelize. Allow the mushrooms to caramelize, then deglaze the pan with white wine and let it reduce.

Once the wine has reduced, add a tablespoon of butter, and stir it until it is fully incorporated. Reduce the heat and add a tablespoon or two of cream (just enough to add a round, creamy flavor, without making it overly heavy), and enough milk to make a loose sauce.

Allow the sauce to reduce a bit over low heat, then add your chopped parsley and basil. Next, remove the sauce from the heat and add the juice of a lemon and grated parmesan cheese, and it’s ready for your pasta.

Pasta

Sift your dry ingredients together, and then add your eggs and olive oil, and bring the dough together. Add water as needed, then turn onto a floured work surface, and kneed for 10-15 minutes.

Let the dough rest for 30 minutes to 1 hour then divide the dough into quarters to begin to work with.

With a pasta roller, start on the widest setting and run the dough through. Next fold the dough over on itself and run it through the same setting again (do this twice). Finally, run the dough through normally on the same setting before moving to the next setting on your roller.

Repeat this process for each setting until your pasta is the desired thickness. This pasta is very broad, so rolling this very thin works best.

When your pasta has been rolled into sheets, trim them into nice rectangles, then flour each side, and fold the sheets lengthwise several times. Your goal is to have a sheet of pasta that has been folded over so that it’s 5-6 inches long (this makes cutting easier).

Next, cut the folded pasta into even strips (1 to 2 inches wide), then unfold them, and hang on a pasta rack until you are ready.

Assembling the Pasta

When you are ready to cook your pasta, boil it in salted water until fully cooked, but al dente. This will only take a few minutes since it’s fresh pasta.

Remember to reserve some of the pasta water, in case that’s needed as well.

In a large sauté pan, heat some of your sauce and add toss in your cooked pasta. Add enough sauce to coat the pasta well, and remove it from the heat.

Finish by adding more grated parmigiano reggiano, and garnish with basil and parsley.