Creamy truffle pasta

A pasta so delicious I ate it before I could get a photo of it.

The sauce is made in a non-Italian method, where we concentrate savory flavors into a chicken broth with cream. The aromatics are strained off, leaving a liquid, which will soon become our glossy pasta sauce.

Serves two.

Ingredients:

5 shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and sliced

1 shallot, sliced

2 garlic cloves, sliced

1 tbsp butter

1 tsp mushroom powder, optional. I get mine from Trader Joe’s

2 cups chicken bone broth, or chicken stock

salt and pepper

300g pure cream

2 tsp black truffle puree

1 cup freshly grated parmesan

large handful mafaldine pasta

Method:

To make the pasta sauce: Prepare mushrooms, shallots and garlic by slicing them thin. Heat a large fry pan over medium-high heat and add butter. Add mushrooms, shallots and garlic and allow to darken and caramelise by not stirring too frequently. Season with salt and pepper and mushroom powder, if using. Do this for approximately 5 minutes, or until color develops on the mushrooms and preferably on the pan as well.

Add chicken stock and pure cream. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat to low and simmer for 15-20 minutes. After this, turn off the heat and strain the liquid through a fine mesh strainer. Press down on the solids using the back of a spoon to squeeze out any liquid that the mushrooms may be clinging onto. Discard the solids and keep the liquid.

Cook the pasta: Cook pasta separately according to the packet instructions. Cook to al dente and reserve the pasta water.

Assemble pasta sauce with pasta: Bring the liquid back to the pan on a medium heat. Once it begins to bubble, add the pasta along with a good glug of the pasta water. Add in the parmesan and stir the cheese into the liquid along with the pasta until a glossy sauce forms. The pasta should finish cooking in the sauce. Once the pasta is just the right amount of saucey for you, plate and finish with extra parmesan.