Creamy Three-shroom Pasta

White sauce pasta --- vegetarian version. Mushrooms are used in place of meat. Creamy good with a salty balance coming from the aged cheese of choice, all brought together with a hint of earthiness and umami coming from the mushroom. This dish is a good addition to anyone’s collection for variations to the white-sauce pasta.

INGREDIENTS:

• 500 grams Pasta
• ½ stick of butter (For sautéing)
• 3 tsbp butter (For the sauce)
• Olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 red onion, sliced
• 2/3 cup Oyster mushrooms
• 2/3 Straw mushrooms, halved
• 2/3 Button mushrooms, sliced into quarters
• ¼ cup flour
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• ¾  cup chicken stock
• 1 cup All purpose cream
• Salt and pepper to taste

For the garnish:

• Mint leaves, chopped
• Basil leaves, chopped
• Cheeses you can use: (adjust according to taste)
• Parmesan
• Pecorino Romano (has a strong flavor, taste is more salty than gorgonzola)
• Gorgonzola (Also strong flavored, quite salty), crumbled

PROCEDURE:

1. Preheat the pan, add in half a stick of butter and olive oil. Add in garlic and onions. Sauté.
2. Add the mushrooms and stir. Cook for a minute. The mushrooms should change color to a darker shade of brown and become tender. Remove from the pan and set aside.
3. With the same pan, add in 3 tbsp butter, olive oil, chicken stock, flour, and cream. Cook for a minute over medium heat.
4. Put the cornstarch in a bowl and pour over 1/3 cup room temperature water. Mix thoroughly.
5. Remove the pan from the heat, add in the cornstarch mixture while constantly stirring to prevent lumps. Return the pan to the fire and let simmer over low-medium heat, stirring intermittently. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Get a large pot, put water in it according to pasta packaging directions, put in a dash of salt and olive oil and bring to a boil.
7. Take out the pasta from the packaging, collect each strand to make a bundle, and hold with one hand close to one of its ends. Place the bundle in the middle of the pot and release the grip. You will notice the pasta will scatter circularly in all directions. The purpose of this is to separate each strand and allow it to each have its own space in the large pot. Stir the pasta in this phase of its cooking to prevent strands from sticking to each other.
8. When the pasta is near Al dente, take it out from the pot using long-handled tongs and transfer it to the simmering sauce in the pan. Add in the mushrooms. Toss the pasta whilst in the pan to coat each strand with the sauce. After tossing, serve the pasta in a bowl and pour the remaining sauce over it.
9. Top with the preferred cheese.
10. Garnish with mint and basil leaves.
11. Enjoy!

NOTES:

• The more delicate the mushroom, the less cooking time is needed. Most mushrooms do not hold up well with lengthy cooking.
• Never wash mushrooms with direct water. Mushrooms are porous and tend to absorb liquid quite easily. Use a damp towel instead.
• Cooking pastas in large pots ensures ample space for each strand to cook and prevents them from sticking to each other.
• Always put a drizzle of olive oil (or any oil) when putting butter in a pan. This prevents butter from burning.
• Putting salt in the boiling water seasons the pasta while cooking. They say it is also used to raise the boiling point of water thus cooking the pasta better but, the amount of salt required to raise the boiling point is ridiculous. 
• Drizzling oil in the boiling water for the pasta prevents it from sticking to each other.
• It is critical to stir pasta in the first few seconds of it cooking in the pot. Starch is released from the pasta at this point. Stirring prevents it from sticking to each other while cooking.
• You can add the cheese while cooking the sauce or, you can use it as a topping before serving. If adding cheese while cooking the sauce, skip the cornstarch.
• Al dente is the term used for perfectly cooked pasta. It is described as being tender, but with a little bite to it. To test, get a strand of pasta form the pot, rinse it with cold water and take a bite.
• For recipes that call for the sauce to be poured into the cooked pasta, the pasta needs to stop cooking when Al dente. This is achieved by rinsing them with cold water until it is only warm. 
• Since this recipe calls for tossing the pasta into the simmering sauce, we need the pasta to be near Al dente (a little tender, with a bite more pronounced than that of Al dente, but definitely not crunchy). The pasta will continue to cook in the simmering sauce so don’t worry about it.
• Pasta is best served on bowls because bowls keep more residual heat from food as compared to a plate. Pasta is served very near to Al dente in restaurants because, by the time it reaches the customer at the dining table, it will be cooked to perfection.
• Pasta, and its flavor, are best consumed right after cooking. Time idle on room temperature tends to make the strands revert to being sticky again, even when oil is included in the cooking of it and in the sauce.