mulberryshoots

While I was in Gloucester this week, my daughter took me to a pasta store named  Pastaio via corta where I bought some freshly made curly edged pasta called Mafalda. I’ve cooked it before from a package of dried pasta – this was slightly thinner and very tender to the bite when cooked.

We had just shared a tasty lunch of pasta with lemon sauce and caviar, whose basic lemon sauce I also used for this recipe. At Idylwylde Farm, I picked up a pack of assorted wild mushrooms which I saved to cook with the fresh pasta. So in a skillet, I melted a tablespoon of unsalted butter and when it was sizzling, I threw the whole pack of mushrooms in to cook gently. On the back burner, I boiled water to cook the pasta, which was done in about 9 minutes. I drained it, saving some of the pasta water and then shook it to make sure it was separated.

The recipe called for zest of one lemon and the juice of same. I had done that and set it aside. In a large mixing bowl, I put three tablespoons of butter, tossed the warm pasta in it and added a little pasta water. Then, I added the lemon zest and lemon juice, tossing the pasta well. The pasta looked beautifully creamy although there was no dairy in this dish. I divided the pasta onto two plates and then lay the wild mushrooms on top – a twist of cracked pepper is all that it needed. We had parmesan cheese on the side but the flavor of the lemon pasta was so clean and pure that it didn’t warrant adding any grated cheese to the mix.

It’s a keeper and I’m looking forward to going back and buying more fresh pasta – this time, enough so that I can freeze it for future meals!