Sunday, October 16, 2005

Mushroom sauce for pasta

Mushroom sauce for pasta
http://www.lunched.co.uk/Pasta/mush_sauce.html

You need:
A good few handfuls of any mushroom sliced thinly.
25g (about 1heaped tbsp) flour or cornflour
1/2 pint of milk
15g butter
olive oil
salt and pepper

Melt the butter in a pan with some olive oil to stop it from burning. Sauté the mushrooms until soft and coloured remove from the pan and set aside. Turn off the heat under the pan. Add the milk and flour and whisk. Turn the heat back on but onto a very low flame. Whisk the sauce frequently but not too vigorously and it will thicken up right before your eyes. It needs to cook for about 10 mins to cook out the flour taste. This is a basic white sauce.

A nice little variation is to bung in a tsp of mustard (english is best), it gives the sauce a certain something. Some torn basil is great too.

Once you are happy with it, return the mushrooms to the pan, allow to heat through, season to taste . Serve over freshly boiled conchigle (pasta shells) as they hold large amounts of sauce. No burnt bits, no lumps, no fuss.