One of the great things about going to the farmers market every weekend has been the unexpected food finds. Last weekend was my second time as a vendor at Woodlawn farmers market. I was located next to a mushroom vendor, Harvest Moon Mushrooms, who grows mushrooms right here in Portland! Jeff went over to buy a few that we could have in an omelette the next day. He asked what they recommended and he came back with these beauties! All their mushrooms are beautiful. And wow, they are delicious. We still had a few left and it looked like enough for a pasta dish so that’s what I made. This is sort of a no-recipe recipe that’s easy enough to put together without exact measurements, but I’ll put a recipe below regardless.

The mushrooms here are Chestnut, Morels and Black Pearl (going clockwise). The mushroom guy made a point to eat all of the Black Pearl, don’t throw away the stem, it’s really tasty! The recipe below is one-pot cooking at its best. I made this in the morning since it was going to be a very hot day and it was easy to reheat for dinner.

Speaking of the heat, this weekend is going to be a scorcher, my weather app has been showing anywhere from 104°-108° on Saturday. So I’m not sure if the market will be open or will have to change the hours, but I have a feeling it might not be happening, I’ll post to my Instagram stories and update the webpage if anything changes.

One more thing, I added some fresh thyme and oregano on top of the pasta for the photos, but I added too much! The oregano was strong and overtook the rich umami flavors of the mushrooms, I wouldn’t add anything more than a bit of parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!

Creamy Mushroom Pasta

1/2 lb pasta shells
2 cups mushrooms roughly chopped (Morels, Black Pearl and Chestnut mushrooms)
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons salted butter
1/4 white wine or dry vermouth
Salt to taste
12 oz Alfredo sauce

If you don’t have a jar of Alfredo sauce:

8 oz creme fraiche
1/2 cup grated parmesan

In a large dutch oven bring water to boil and cook pasta as directed. Drain in colander and stir in a bit of olive oil to keep it from sticking, set aside.

In the same pot heat the olive oil and butter until melted on a medium heat, add the chopped mushrooms and a pinch of salt, stir as needed for about 5-10 minutes, when mushrooms look about half way done, add the white wine, give a stir and let cook for another 5-10 minutes on a lower heat. Your mushrooms should be soft and tender at this point, if not let it cook a few more minutes.

If you’re using a ready made Alfredo sauce you can add it at this point, heat another 5 minutes or so. If not add the creme fraiche and parmesan cheese, stir to combine, add the pasta and heat a few more minutes.

Serve with a pinch or two of parmesan.