Pappardelle with Mixed Mushrooms and Mozzarella

Marc Vetri is our favorite chef in Philadelphia. He has a cookbook, il viaggio di vetri: a culinary journey, that Mary bought after her first visit to Vetri. In his cookbook, Marc Vetri shares many of his recipes from his restaurants. From going to his three restaurants in Philadelphia, we have have grown to love his pasta dishes. We have been wanting to try our hand at making our own pasta and have also had our eye on one of Jamie Oliver’s recipes, Pappardelle with Mixed Mushrooms and Mozzarella. And so…Marc Vetri’s pasta with Jamie Oliver’s dish seemed to be a perfect match. Sure, you can choose to use dried pasta, but why would you do that when making your own pasta is so easy and tastes so much better? Jamie Oliver’s recipe is light and refreshing. The lemon zest and juice really give this dish a great taste. We thought that substituting the mozzarella with goat cheese would be a good change for next time. Adding spinach or topping each serving with a sprinkling of pine nuts would be a nice touch as well.

Pappardelle with Mixed Mushrooms and Mozzarella

Ingredients

  • 1 recipe fresh pasta, cut into pappardelle (or 9 oz. dried)
  • 9 oz. mixed mushrooms
  • half of a bunch of flat leaf parsley, leaves picked and chopped, stems chopped fine
  • 1 lemon
  • 2 garlic cloves, sliced
  • 2 oz. parmesan, freshly grated
  • 5 oz. ball of fresh mozzarella cheese, torn into pieces
  • 2 T creme fraiche
  • Knob of butter
  • olive oil
  • sea salt
  • black pepper

Directions

  1. Bring salted water to a boil and cook pasta according to directions.
  2. Clean mushrooms by brushing with towel to remove any dirt and slice, do not submerge mushrooms in water.
  3. Heat butter and a bit of olive oil over high heat in large skillet.  Add garlic, parsley stems, mushrooms, salt, and pepper.  Cook 5-6 minutes until mushrooms are well-browned.
  4. When the pasta is cooked, reserve about 1 cup of the cooking water and set aside.
  5. Drain the pasta.
  6. Add the zest of the lemon, the creme fraiche, half of the Parmesan, the mozzarella, juice of half of the lemon and half of the remaining parsley to the mushroom mixture.
  7. Toss to combine. Add the pasta and about half of the reserved pasta water to loosen the sauce. If needed, add remaining pasta water.
  8. Adjust seasonings.  Serve sprinkled with remaining parmesan, parsley, and a bit of extra virgin olive oil.