Cheesy, Garlicky, Mushroomy Spaghetti
This luxurious, creamy pasta is now on my regular rotation. The secret ingredient is confit garlic!
Have you made confit garlic yet?! If you haven’t may this recipe serve as an ever-so-gentle reminder that confit garlic is great and goes with everything and you should go back to this post and make yourself a whole big heap to use constantly!
The amounts in this recipe are intentionally flexible because you can pretty much use the general idea as a base (confit garlic + spaghetti + parmesan) and throw in whatever you’ve got lying around in the fridge. I used mushrooms, chilli and rocket, but if you have some broccolini, cherry tomatoes or capsicum you could totally give those a quick grill or a fry and throw them in too!
Cheesy, Garlicky, Mushroomy Spaghetti
Serves 2
Ingredients
2 serves of linguine
2 Tbsp confit garlic cloves in olive oil
Two good handfuls of fresh field or shiitake mushrooms, chopped into big chunks
A little fresh oregano (~ 2 tsp)
A few sprigs of fresh thyme
1 large red chilli, finely diced (optional)
A generous heap of strong parmesan cheese
A handful of rocket leaves
For the salad
Two handfuls of fresh lettuce (I used the Buttercrunch variety)
2 Tbsp pine nuts
1 Tbsp capers
A handful of fresh basil
A zesty vinaigrette (try this one - it’s my Dad’s recipe and I love it!)
Method
Cook the linguine according to the instructions on the packet
While the linguine is cooking, fry the mushrooms in the confit garlic and olive oil. Add the oregano, thyme and chilli and fry until the mushrooms have cooked down and started to turn a beautiful golden colour.
While the pasta is cooking, throw together the side salad. Basically just chuck everything in a big bowl and dress with the vinaigrette. The lemony, vinegar-y dressing cuts through the creamy mushroom-y cheesiness so pleasantly!
Now your salad is done, drain the pasta, and while it’s still steaming, chuck it in the frying pan along with the parmesan cheese and rocket leaves. Give it all a good toss. If it looks a little dry, add some more of the oil from the confit garlic. Hell, chuck in a few more of the cloves too! And maybe some more cheese. MmmmMmMm. Give it all a good toss so it’s well mixed and the rocket has started to just wilt, season with salt and cracked pepper, then serve!