Mushroom Alfredo
This creamy, earthy Mushroom Alfredo pasta is a great contender for a Valentine’s Day dinner, or for any time you’re looking to make something a little extra rich & special. I would even venture to say that this dish could make a mushroom skeptic rethink their position, since a creamy sauce is always such a crowd pleaser, and goes so well with the earthiness of the mushrooms. Hope you’ll give it a try sometime this winter!
Mushroom Alfredo
serves 4
olive oil
1 yellow onion, diced
sea salt
1 lb/455 g cremini mushrooms, caps torn into halves or quarters, stems sliced
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary, plus more for garnishing
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
freshly ground black pepper
1 lb/455 g pasta
1/4 cup cashews, soaked in hot water for 15 minutes if no high speed blender
1 tablespoon white miso
1 teaspoon nutritional yeast
juice from 1 lemon
Set a pot of well-salted water to a boil for the pasta. Heat a large skillet over medium heat, and add enough olive oil to just coat the bottom. Add the onion and a pinch of salt, saute for 10 minutes, or until soft and translucent. Transfer the cooked onions to an upright blender.
Add more oil to the same skillet, enough to coat the bottom. Add the mushrooms and a pinch of salt. Stir once to coat the mushrooms in the oil and salt, then leave undisturbed to brown for about 10 minutes. Stir the mushrooms only once all the water that they release has the evaporated, and the undersides are brown. Cook for another 3-5 minutes, to brown the other sides of the mushrooms. Add the garlic, rosemary, balsamic, and black pepper to taste. Mix to coat and cook for 1 more minute. Turn off the heat for now. Transfer about half of the mushrooms to the blender with the onions.
Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the package. Reserve 2 cups of the pasta water.
While the pasta is cooking, add the cashews, miso, nutritional yeast, and lemon juice to the blender. Add 3/4 cup of the pasta water to the blender once ready. Blend on high until smooth. Taste the sauce for salt and add some sea salt if needed.
Once the pasta is done cooking, strain it and add to the skillet with the mushrooms. Turn the heat under the skillet back on to medium. Add all of the sauce and mix to combine, adding splashes of the pasta water if needed. Serve the pasta right away, garnished with more rosemary.
Intuitive Cooking Takeaways
This recipe illustrates how to cook mushrooms for the best tasting results. Not disturbing mushrooms before all of the liquid that they release evaporates, letting them brown properly, and not stirring them too often to avoid steaming (less flavor development) are all key principles that can be applied any time you’re cooking mushrooms.
The Alfredo sauce recipe is a great example for building, deep, earthy, and cozy plant-based flavor. It’s all in the balance of savory (mushrooms, rosemary, garlic), sweet (onions), umami/salty (mushrooms, miso, nutritional yeast), acid (balsamic, lemon), and fat (cashews, olive oil). See January’s class for more on the building blocks of flavor.
