Pasta with mushroom cream sauce is a pretty standard dish, but for a long time I found that the best I’d ever had was at best “very good”, but never excellent, exceptional, or amazing. And the reason is the cream.
It seems like most people, at least in North America, use heavy cream, or table cream, or half and half, or whatever other type of high-fat liquid. But if you want a really good, mind-blowing, absolutely incredible cream sauce, what you want is crème fraîche. Thick like sour cream but without that tart flavour, it melts down perfectly into a thick, flavourful coating.
But this post isn’t just to extoll the virtues of crème fraîche, it’s to provide you with a recipe for a mushroom cream sauce that will make your mouth water and your whole body burn with excitement.
Okay, enough with the over-the-top descriptions. Here’s what you’ll need (serves 2)
2-5 fresh porcini mushrooms (depending on size)
2 large cloves of garlic (more or less, depending on how much you like garlic and how flavourful the bulbs you have are)
20 g gorgonzola cheese
3 tablespoons crème fraîche
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice (to taste)
olive oil
salt to taste
Thinly slice the mushrooms and mince the garlic. Add olive oil to a pan and, once heated, add the mushrooms and garlic. Salt, and cook until the mushrooms have let off their liquid and reduced. Add the gorgonzola to the pan, followed by the crème fraîche. Stir everything together until the cheese has all melted and dissolved into the sauce. Taste your creation and say, “hmm, this is good, but it’s missing something …” then add the lemon juice, a little at a time, stirring and tasting after each addition until it’s achieved your desired flavour (“absolutely amazing”).
You can serve this with whatever pasta you prefer, but I would recommend making your own pappardelle if you can. (Store bought is obviously fine otherwise.)