Food Endeavours of the Blue Apocalypse: Truffle Pasta with Alfredo Sauce and Sauteed Mushrooms

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Truffle Pasta with Alfredo Sauce and Sauteed Mushrooms

I think that one of the easiest and best ways to enjoy fresh truffle is to make a creamy based pasta sauce and serve with sauteed mushrooms.

A lot of recipes for truffles contain mushrooms. The mushroom and truffle combination works well together as they help to amplify the flavour of each other. Add truffles to mushrooms and mushrooms appear to taste more mushroomy, and the flavour of the truffle becomes more prominent.

Fat helps bring out the full flavor of the truffles so cream, butter and cheese go hand in hand with truffles. An alfredo sauce is perfect for truffles because it basically consists of cream, butter and cheese and takes less than 10 minutes to make.

This recipe for alfredo sauce is adapted from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan.

Ingredients

•    300ml pouring/whipping cream
•    ~ 2 tablespoons butter
•    1-2 cloves crushed garlic
•    ¾ cup of grated parmesan cheese
•    sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
•    grating of nutmeg

Method

Melt butter in a sauce pan over medium-low hat, add cream and simmer (for about 5 minutes) until the cream and butter has thickened.

Add garlic and whisk in the cheese a little at a time, stirring until it melts. As the cheese melts, it emulsifies the liquid to form a smooth and rich coating on the pasta.

Add pinch of salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste.

Note: Serve immediately because as the sauce cools, the large amount of fat in the sauce will congeal and it will become glue like.

Fresh pasta with alfredo sauce, sauteed mushrooms on top and gratings of fresh truffle.
If you don’t have fresh truffle, you can omit it and it will still be a delicious dish.

I like making fresh pasta but it is also very easy these days to buy fresh pasta from the supermarket. When I am short on time or just want something quick for dinner after work I will buy fresh pasta from the supermarket.

I had this fresh pasta which was from Antonios Continential Deli in Mount Lawley at my friends place for dinner once, and I really like the taste and texture of it and used it for my truffle pasta.