Creminin mushrooms, cream, garlic and dry vermouth mix with pasta and parmesan for a delicious weeknight or date night dish.

Easy, delicious, impressive and always in season pasta dish. Perfect for all the vermouth you bought and forgot about.

Vermouth

The Vermouth! If you’re here you probably googled, “what can I use vermouth for” or “vermouth recipes” or “what is vermouth?”

Vermouth is a fortified wine with added botanicals and is available as dry or sweet. For this recipe dry white vermouth should be used. If sherry, is sweet and floral and warm, dry white vermouth would be the complete opposite flavor profile. It has a sharper, cleaner flavor supported by citrus and salt. Salt, in the way you know pickles, ocean air or a bag of salt and vinegar chips smell salty.

Typically vermouth is added into cocktails, like a classic or dirty Martini, Negroni, Manhattan, etc.

Vermouth also pairs in seafood dishes, chicken, tomato and heavier cream sauces.

The Mushrooms:

Normally I would say, “use what you have” but for this recipe I would strongly recommend sticking to cremini also sold under the name baby portabello mushrooms, for their size, shape, texture, cooking time and flavor.

How to buy mushrooms?

The S.E.T method

Smell them! Any hint of ammonia, sourness or mold and it is a hard pass. Bad mushrooms are a very bad time and no one wants a bad time.

Examine them! Are the caps right and well rounded.

Can you see the gills? Are they uniform and defined like an accordion or are they looking a little parched and ragged? The latter is not a good sign.

Can’t see the gills because there is a spongy looking membrane? That part is called the mushroom veil. Completely edible and there to protect the gills of the mushroom. If it is whole, without too many blemishes , keep it. A little bruised ( maybe from transport or harvest?) peel it back and look at the gills. Are they good? Keep it moving.

Touch them! Slick, slimy or sticky is another hard pass. Leave them be and make something else.

How to store mushrooms?

I’ve tried a few methods and my personal preference is removing them from their packaging or grocery bag (if buying by weight) and placing them in a paper towel lined bowl, covering with a single layer of plastic wrap/cling film with a few holes poked in.

Here is a great article from The Kitchn: How to Store Mushrooms giving you all the mushroom storing options.

How long will they last?

Another impractical expectation for refrigerators that are a little dated and maybe don’t have special climate control features is mushrooms retaining their freshness for more than 3 days after purchase. I blog as a someone who has lived in rented apartments, with amenities that do not compare to state of the line food testing kitchens. If you have a different experience I’d love to hear about it!

Cleaning mushrooms:

I side with Jacques Pepin and say it is okay to wash, read not soak, your mushrooms before slicing them. Use a damp cloth or a quick rinse in the sink removing dirt and debris is just fine. They will not retain any additional water. Do this right before using them. You can buy a mushroom brush if your so inclined.

Most mushrooms, even “wild” are cultivated under fairly controlled conditions and are reasonably clean before you cook at them at home. That being said, you should still clean and prep produce with care and attention.

The Pasta

For this recipe I’m using pappardelle, which are a long, broad and flat pasta, really good for creamy silky sauces, like this one. They cook up silky with a bit of chew and when combined with an equally soft sauce it is the perfect pairing.

Don’t have pappardelle, what else can you use?

Fettuccine

Linguine

Campanelle , which translate to bellflower and sometimes look like a ruffled chanterelle mushroom.

Thick Spaghetti

Tagliatelle

Ideally you want a softer flowing pasta.

Something like ziti and rigatoni are sturdier in shape. Not ideal, but if your heart is set on making this sauce and all you have is ziti, penne or rigattoni, go for it.

The sauce

This is not a make ahead sauce. Its a make and eat dish, making it ideal for a busy weeknight or date night or cozy weekend in.

The sauce and final pasta come together in the pan.

You’ll only need one pot to boil the pasta, cutting board and a good wide shallow saute pan to make the sauce and combine the pasta. Making it really ideal for a weeknight meal when you forgot to defrost or even think of dinner or the dishes that follow after cooking.

Ingredients:

5 nests of pappardelle pasta

1 lb sliced cremini mushrooms

1/2 small white onion or 4 spears of scallion, finely chopped

1/3 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup dry white vermouth

1 ladle of pasta water reserved

4 garlic cloves, finely minced

2 sprigs fresh thyme or 1 sprig dry or 1/4 tsp dry thyme

Black pepper

2 tbsp butter

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt to taste

1/8 cup Parmesan cheese

Method:

Heat olive oil in a wide shallow pan.

Cook down mushrooms without salt on medium high heat until moisture evaporates and mushroom begin to brown.

Lower heat to medium low

To the sauteeing mushroom add onion, garlic, thyme and season with salt. Cook until fragrant and onions begin to soften about 2-3 minutes.

Pouring away from yourself, add in the dry sweet vermouth with the pan off the flame. You may have a bit of pyrotechnics, you may not, in either case, it is best to be safe. Once all the vermouth is added, cook for an additional 2 minutes on medium high.

Add in the cream and shake the pan. To the cream add the butter and start to swirl the pan to combine.

Important note: Before the butter has melted add in the pasta straight from the boiling pot, and continue to shake and swirl. Use a pair of tongs or two spoons to combine the pasta with the sauce.

The starch in the warm pasta will help keep the butter and cream from turning into a greasy mess.

If the pasta and sauce look dry, add in small splashes of pasta water until the sauce is loose but thick enough to coat the pasta and mushrooms.

Finally, turn off the heat and add all the grated parmesan cheese. Toss to coat and serve immediately. Add additional cheese if you like.