Perfect Mushroom Pasta for One

It's normally difficult enough to portion out ingredients when cooking for two. Getting leftovers for days after a meal obviously shouldn't be a "problem" to complain about, but when things go to waste, then that is a real problem!

Now that I'm at home during the day and I have the added luxury of freshly home cooked lunches on most days, it is sometimes a bit iffy to portion out for one serving.

Here's a recipe I nutted out that I'm recently loving. It is largely based on dry goods you can keep in your pantry earlier on, only requiring a couple of store bought ingredients. Flexi enough to accommodate singletons with smaller or larger stomachs and can be made in under 10 minutes.

PERFECT MUSHROOM PASTA FOR ONE RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

• Couple stalks of Spring Onion finely chopped (or quarter brown onion finely chopped)
• Small handful / 25gm of Dried Porcini Mushrooms, soaked in half a bowl of hot water
• 3-4 TBSP Cream
• About 50gm of Dry Long Pasta (about a AUD10c diameter bunch of pasta when held between finger and thumb) of your choice : I much prefer linguine for that slurpy goodness
• A Handful of Protein of your choice (Optional); I chose leftover roast chicken
• Fresh Thyme Sprig/Pinch of Dried Thyme (Optional)
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• Grated Parmesan cheese & Chopped parsley 

STEPS

1.  Squeeze out excess moisture from the soaked Dried Porcini Mushrooms when they become tender and soft. Depending on your preference, either leave the squeezed mushrooms whole or chop them up into pieces and place in a separate bowl to set aside.

2.  Strain the excess Porcini mushroom liquid to get rid of any grit, save this liquid and set aside

3.  Place a medium saucepan with 3/4 of water to boil, once the water is boiling, drop your pasta of choice into the water to cook for approximately 7 minutes or until al dente (remember to season the water with salt & a bit of olive oil!).

• Tip: Place a wooden spoon on top of your saucepan to stop it over-boiling

4.  While pasta is cooking, saute chopped/brown onion in small frypan with a dash of olive oil until slightly soft.

5.  Toss the Porcini Mushrooms, your protein, (fresh/dry herbs) and the Porcini liquid into the frypan, mix this together and then turn heat down low to let the sauce gently simmer and bubble away for a couple of minutes.

6.  Mix in the cream once the liquid has reduced to your desired level of liquidity for a pasta sauce. Season the sauce with salt and pepper to taste.

7.  Strain your pasta once 7 mins is up and toss into the frypan of sauce so that it can soak up a bit of sauce while it is porous and hot. Season with salt and pepper if you think it's needed.

• Tip: Save a bit of the leftover strained pasta water so that if your pasta has soaked up too much sauce and has become too dry, you can mix in a bit of pasta water to loosen up the pasta again.

8.  Serve with a good grating of parmesan and freshly chopped parsley.

This would be so perfect with cubes of crispy pancetta too! Make it for a first date, make it for your girlfriends for a girly lunch with a few wines. Just double, triple, quadruple the recipe depending on your party number!

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