In one of the many food type emails (recipes, restaurants, etc.) I get a day was a picture of pasta with mushrooms. The email was for a restaurant so there wasn’t any recipe, but I started looking up mushroom pasta dishes. This recipe for orechiette pasta with porcini and crimini mushrooms was inspired by this recipe for Pasta with White Wine and Porcini Mushroom Sauce on Spoon’s blog. I would have loved to use pappardelle but I couldn’t find any on my way home. I love mushrooms so I used both the dried fancy ones and the normal crimini.

1 ounce package dried porcini mushrooms
1 1/2 cups vegetable or mushroom broth (I used 1 teaspoon Better than Bouillon Mushroom Base)
1 tablespoon butter
8 ounces crimini mushrooms sliced
1 tablespoon butter
1 shallot minced
2 garlic cloves sliced
Orechiette
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup basil sliced
Salt
Pepper freshly ground
Parmesan cheese

1. Boil broth and pour over dried porcini mushrooms.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon butter in a big skillet.
3. Add sliced crimini mushrooms in one layer and cook without moving until they brown on one side.
4. Stir mushrooms and try and get the other side brown too.
5. Remove mushrooms from pan and add more butter back to pan.
6. Add shallots and garlic and saute until soft, then add back the mushrooms.
7. Drain porcini mushrooms saving the broth and add to pan.
8. Meanwhile boil water with a little salt and olive oil for the orechiette and boil according to package directions.
9. Add the white wine and a little of the broth and cook for a few minutes reducing the liquid slightly.
10. Add basil, salt and pepper.
11. Pour over orechiette and sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Have a glass of white wine with that wine you opened for the recipe!