Four Mushroom Brown Penne W/ Parmesan & Dill

Me and everyone else in my family loves mushroom dishes. Dried shiitake and fresh button mushrooms are always stocked up in my kitchen pantry. I love the kinda chewy texture and umami flavour of mushrooms. Mushroom soups, noodles and pastas are a regular thing in the house during vegetarian diet days.

But most of the time it’s always been one or two kinds of mushroom in a dish. Knowing about the amazing varieties of edible mushrooms and their distinct flavours I wanted to try combining quite a few more types of mushrooms in one of my recipes, and went on with the idea that a pasta would be the best thing to try, for a irresistibly creamy bowl of this perfect cooked umami rich pasta dish would never go wrong.

Brown penne- Penne is one of the most popularly loved and widely available pasta variety. But brown penne? Although brown pastas are not preferred by many for their chewier texture and nuttier flavour, this recipe is an exception. It tastes just like white penne once it’s cooked al-dente as you follow the below recipe and stir it up in the rich and yummy pasta sauce. So, there’s no excuse on going healthy this time by switching your white pasta with brown.

Different types of mushrooms- Low in calories and rich in micronutrients, mushrooms are always loved and included in the diet for weight loss, antioxidant-anticancerous properties. It’s also one of the most famous umami-rich vegan substitute for meat. Portobellos for burgers, enoki for ramens, shiitake for soups, button/ porcini for pastas, cremini for risottos are all the widely used types of mushrooms loved for their distinct shapes, flavour and texture. This recipe here uses 4 types of mushrooms that I happened to collect in my pantry and is super delicious.

. 1 cup of dry brown penne

. Olive oil- as required

. Salt- as required

. 1/4 teaspoon oregano

. 2 pinches of freshly ground black pepper

. 2 pinches (or more, to make it more hot) of red chilli flakes

. 1 tbsp chopped fresh dill leaves

. 1 tablespoon cold butter

. 1 tablespoon heavy cream

. 1-2 cloves of finely chopped garlic

. 1 tablespoon of chopped shallots

. Half cup of vegetable stock

. 2 tablespoons of white wine (optional)

. One small bay leaf

A handful of button, brown shimeji, shiitake and porcini mushrooms.

. Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Start buy cooking the pasta. Bring 3 cups of water to a rolling boil with half a teaspoon of salt . Drizzle a little olive oil and add the dry pasta. Give it a stir, cover with a lid and reduce the flame to med-low. Cook it covered for 5-8 minutes, or *until your pasta has no white ring in between when bitten into (“al-dente”- perfectly cooked), not over cooked.

Drain the pasta and reserve the pasta water. Give your pasta a cold water bath to avoid sticking together and to firm up your carb a bit before cooking further.

For the sauce, start but sautéing the onions, garlic and bay leaves with a pinch of salt in olive oil until the onions are translucent. Add in the mushrooms and sauté until the mushrooms have sweat enough to reduce in volume. Spice it up with black pepper and red chilli flakes, add oregano and half of the chopped dill. Sauté again, pour in the broth and wine. Bring this to a boil and reduce it into half. Now pour in the reserved pasta water and bring it to a boil as the sauce thickens. Stir in the cream and pasta. Stir well on low heat until the pasta is uniformly coated and the sauce the sauce has reached the desired creamy consistency-this would take 1-3 mins. Season it with salt again-if required. Turn off the flame and stir in the cold butter until it melts and coats the pasta nice and creamy.

Serve you yummy pasta topped with rest of the chopped dill and Parmesan.

• -*follow this (starred in instructions) tip for the perfectly boiled pasta each time you a pasta dish.
• -Feel free to substitute the mushrooms in the above recipe with your favourite mushrooms varieties -cremini, enoki.etc., to enjoy your comfort food better.