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Engaging stories of love, joy, comfort and friendship with proven scrumptious, healthy recipes, we celebrate LOVE as the secret ingredient for wonderful food!

Pasta with Shiitake Mushrooms & Peas in a Light Cream Sauce

June 11, 2020 by Mary 4 Comments

Finished Pasta with Shiitake Mushrooms & Peas in a Light Cream Sauce in a white bowl, photographed outside.
This Pasta with Shiitake Mushrooms & Peas in a Light Cream Sauce is a quick and easy dish – perfect for an al fresco lunch or dinner.

When I lived in Italy, I would make this dish with fresh Porcini mushrooms, which are literally To. Die. For. I have never seen fresh ones here and the dried ones, when you reconstitute them are NOTHING like the fresh. So, I had a hankering for this dish this week, while my 29-month old grandson was staying with me for the week. Because fresh Porcini are not available, I made this Pasta with Shiitake Mushrooms & Peas in a Light Cream Sauce with some beautiful fresh Shiitake mushrooms I had just bought the day before. While my grandson loved the dish, me, not so much at the time.

I honestly thought this recipe of Pasta with Shiitake Mushrooms & Peas in a Light Cream Sauce was not good enough to share with you. You know, my recipes have to be superlative and mostly easy and healthy in order to share with you. Those are my requirements.

It made the grade!

Then I took the leftovers back to my son, when returning my adorable, smart, entertaining and beautiful grandson. (I just had to get that in there as my son won’t let me mention his name or show his picture on social media – so there you go – I am reduced to adjectives.) My son had some of the leftovers and said, “Mom, that dish was really, really good!! The mushrooms were meaty (Porcini are really meaty – in fact, just like meat!) and I don’t know why you didn’t like it. Do you have Coronavirus? You know it affects your taste buds.”

Well of course I do not have the Coronavirus and meaty was what I was looking for in the mushrooms but I guess it’s all relative. I knew what you could get with Porcini and these didn’t live up to it in my book but hey, my son (the oldest – you knew) is a pretty harsh critic and if he says it was delicious, even as a warmed up leftover, you can bet this is delicious.

Porcini in Arezzo

Along with the memory of making this dish in Italy, is the actual buying of the Porcini at the market in Arezzo on Saturday mornings. Oh how I loved that market! Everything was so fresh and beautiful and amazing. I would meet my friend Cristina and immediately go to this one Porchetta stand and get a warm Porchetta sandwich to eat at 10 am in the morning. I did not care about the garlic at that hour. The sandwich was heaven. Cristina thought I was crazy.

But I digress. The Porcini man was this big burly guy who would shout out Porcini, Porcini, Porcini and I would come to buy and pick several, (you have to buy whatever you touch – way before Coronavirus), and then he would weigh them and charge me and then always put a few extra in my bag, a little gruffly. But you could tell, he was a teddy bear deep down inside with his bearish voice and rough hands.

An Americana in Italy…

True, I was the token Americana in this small town.

I once asked my friend Tizianna, “So, do I really stand out? Do I not look Italian?”

“No Mary, you do not look Italian,” replied Tizianna.

I was disappointed. I thought I blended in more.

But no. This (supposedly) 100% Polish girl did not look Italian.

So now, I feel compelled to share this recipe with you and I hope you love it and I hope that someday, you’ll also get to make it with fresh Porcini mushrooms.

Obviously, this is a vegetarian dish and the idea was to make a dish tasting meaty enough without it having meat, as I think it would be healthier for all of us and the planet, if we cut down on our meat consumption.

So please give it a go, and don’t forget to add LOVE when making it. It’s quick and easy and really very delicious.

Sliced Shiitake mushroom caps, minced mushroom stems and thinly sliced shallot before mincing.
Sliced Shiitake mushroom caps, minced mushroom stems and thinly sliced shallot.

PASTA WITH SHIITAKE MUSHROOMS & PEAS IN A LIGHT CREAM SAUCE – serves 4

½ lb. pasta, such as strozzapreti, conchiglie, or small ziti
8 large Shiitake mushrooms, wiped clean with a damp paper towel, stems trimmed of dirt, removed from caps & finely minced; caps sliced into 4 or 5 slices each
1 shallot, thinly sliced with a hand mandoline
2 Tbs. butter
1 Tbs. extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
2 cups frozen baby peas
½ cup finely grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
¼ cup of heavy cream, divided
½ cup pasta water

Shiitake mushrooms caps, minced stems and shallots sauteing in a skillet.
Minced Shiitake stems and shallots pushed off to the side, while browning the sliced caps.

The process

Bring a large pot of water to boil. After it boils, add a generous tablespoon of coarse sea salt, or enough so that it tastes like the ocean. Bring to a rolling boil again, then add your pasta and cook for 2 minutes less than the lesser amount on the package. Drain the pasta reserving 1 cup of pasta water.

Put the frozen peas in a strainer and run cold water over them. Gently break up any frozen clumps. Let them continue to drain while you work on the rest of the dish.

Heat the EVOO with the butter and sauté the sliced shallots and mushroom stems on medium-high heat. After the butter subsides, move the minced shallots and stems to the sides of the skillet and add the mushroom cap slices, spreading them out evenly in the pan. Lower the heat to medium and do not touch them for 5 minutes. Then flip them over to brown the other side and cook until tender and lightly browned, about 3 more minutes.

Add 2 Tbs. heavy cream. Add the cooked pasta, the Parmigiano, and ½ cup of the pasta water. Stir thoroughly. Add the drained peas, stirring and finish cooking the pasta until al dente. If you need more pasta water, add it. This will take 1 – 3 minutes, depending on how your pasta was cooked in the beginning.

Finish with heavy cream and LOVE

Finish the dish with the 2 more Tbs, of heavy cream stirred in. Add fresh ground pepper and taste for salt – it probably will not need salt if you salted your pasta water properly and the Parmigiano Reggiano is also salty. Stir to combine completely. Add your LOVE.

Serve in warmed bowls and enjoy!!

Finished Pasta with Shiitake Mushrooms & Peas in a Light Cream Sauce in the skillet.
Finished Pasta with Shiitake Mushrooms & Peas in a Light Cream Sauce, ready to serve!

Filed Under: Dinner, Lunch, Pasta Tagged With: Dinner, lunch, meatless dinners, pasta, peas, quick meatless meals, shiitake mushrooms, vegetarian pasta

Veggie Pho – Gluten-Free!

May 16, 2015 by Mary 13 Comments

Savory Choice Veg Pho finished in a bowl.Savory Creations International, located in Northern California, is the company that makes this outstanding Veggie Pho. Savory Creations Veggie Authentic Pho.They make other pho’s too – chicken and beef – but I chose the vegetable one to include in our spring box because I thought it was so flavorful and I love the hint of cloves. This company supplies broths and demi glace for top chefs at very fine restaurants so they really know what they are doing, as all of their products are super delicious and just as good as homemade. Of course all of them are all natural, no MSG, naturally gluten-free with zero trans fats and come concentrated in these handy little packets where you dissolve each packet in 2 cups of hot water.

Savory Choice Veg Pho with sandwiches.

I made this Veggie Pho Gluten-Free and paired it with a grilled Provolone and tomato sandwich on whole grain bread (I know – I added glutens with the bread, but we are not sensitive to glutens!) for one of our weekly meatless meals and my husband asked me to make this dinner again. You know he usually complains about the one meatless meal per week but this one was a winner!

Pho is the Vietnamese national dish, typically consisting of rice noodles, onions, herbs, seasonings and thinly sliced beef or chicken in a clear broth.

Savory Choice Veg. Pho ingredients on a wooden board.

I chose to keep this pho vegetarian as well as gluten-free, using white rice noodles and a variety of vegetables. Of course you can use any combination of vegetables or add a protein such as shrimp, chicken or pork. Anything works in this broth. It’s super easy and quick to have a satisfying meal to put on the table in a jiffy. And remember to make it with LOVE – for best results! 🙂Savory Choice Vegetable Pho in a bowl with noodles.

Here’s what I did:

VEGGIE PHO – GLUTEN-FREE  – serves 3

3 packs of Savory Choice Veggie Pho
6 cups of hot water
5 oz. gluten-free white rice spaghetti
2 radishes, thinly sliced
2/3 of a head of Romaine lettuce heart, cut in 1/4” slices
1/4 of a head of radicchio, cut in 1/4” slices
One handful of sugar snap peas, strings removed
1/4 cup oil cured, pitted black olives
2 scallions, white and light green parts, cut in 1/4” slices
Dash of Sriracha sauce to taste

Set a medium sized pot of cold water on to boil. When it comes to a boil, season with coarse sea salt and cook the white rice spaghetti al dente. Drain and reserve.

Prepare all the vegetables. Dissolve the Veggie Pho in the 6 cups of hot water in a medium sized pot. Bring it to a simmer and add the sugar snap peas. Simmer for 2 -3 minutes, until crisp tender. Add the noodles, the rest of the vegetables and the olives. Remove from heat immediately as you want to keep the rest of the vegetables crisp and tasty – do not cook them. Ladle pho into serving bowls. Garnish with scallions and serve. Use the sauce as you please for an added kick!
Making grilled Provolone cheese and tomato sandwiches.

PROVOLONE AND TOMATO GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICHES – serves 2

4 slices of whole grain bread
Unsalted butter
6 – 8 slices of Provolone cheese
1 tomato, cut in 6 slices
fresh ground pepper

Assemble sandwiches as shown, cheese topped with the tomato slices. Grind pepper over the tomatoes. Close the sandwiches and butter one side of the bread.

Melt some butter in a non-stick skillet on medium heat. Swirl the butter around to coat the bottom of the pan. Put the unbuttered side of the sandwich down and cook for about 5 minutes until bread is nicely browned. Flip sandwich over and toast the other side for 4 – 5 minutes.Provolone grilled cheese and tomato sandwich cut in half.

Remove to a plate and cut in half diagonally to serve with the Veggie Pho. Enjoy!!

The Savory Choice Veggie Pho was in our MARY’s secret ingredients spring box. The summer box will mail on June 25th. 

Filed Under: Dinner, Lunch Tagged With: gluten-free, gluten-free dinners, grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches, meatless dinners, vegetable pho, vegetarian

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Mary Frances

Mary Frances

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