TGIF! – TAGLIATELLE WITH WILD MUSHROOMS

We love Friday evenings in our house. No need to quickly check my daughter’s homework the moment I stumble over the doorstep, no need to quickly give that bath, quickly prepare the dinner, quickly take out the garbage, quickly load the washing machine, quickly prepare everything for the next day, quickly listen to my daughter’s description of her day at school (is quickly listening possible, by the way)… and as she loses herself in the most minute details of the day, I – thinking about the next five things I need to do  – am not capable of following her story any more. The list is long of the myriads of things we mothers are capable of doing in an hour…Honestly, just writing this paragraph got me exhausted…

But come Friday and it all changes. No rush on Friday evenings, no need to repeat a hundred times ‘hurry, sweetie, hurry, hurry’ because if we get to bed somewhat later is not gonna be a catastrophe next morning. Instead we spend time talking, and we really listen and we dance. Yes, we dance a lot. And we open a bottle of wine and have an aperitif with some pistachios and olives and then we do some more dancing. Dinner preparation is also more enjoyable while sipping that glass of wine (or two). My daughter now looks forward so much to these evenings because she knows we’ll be more relaxed, pay more attention to her and Mommy even has time to dance along with her in front of the mirror…Hmmm, Friday evenings are good, aren’t they?

And tonight’s dinner is such a simple dish that I’ll be dancing more than standing at the kitchen counter chopping up veggies. Tonight it’s tagliatelle with wild mushrooms served with some chilled Chardonnay. What a great way to start the weekend! And as you’ll discover, I put white wine in the pasta sauce as well, so my favorite fridge magnet holds true tonight!

What you’ll need to serve 4:

• 2-3 cloves of garlic, grossly minced
• a good glug of extra virgin olive oil
• peperoncino (chili pepper) to taste
• Himalaya salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 400g of different kinds of wild mushrooms (I used chanterelles, yellow chanterelles and cèpe), cleaned and sliced
• a glass of white wine (you can use sauvignon blanc or chardonnay)
• 2 springs of fresh thyme
• a handful of fresh parsley, roughly chopped
• parmesan, freshly grated
• 400g taglietelle cooked al dante
• seasalt
• a knob of butter
• a popsong playing on the radio

What you’ll need to do:

1. Put a large pot of water to boil for your pasta. Don’t forget to add salt to the water.
2. In a large pan heat the olive oil and then add the garlic, frying a minute or so. Pay attention not to burn the garlic because it will ruin the taste of your whole dish. Then add the mushrooms and pour in the glass of white wine. It’s going to sizzle and smell oh so fine! Reduce the heat, cover and cook for a few minutes.
3. In the meantime your pasta water should be boiling, so add the pasta and cook al dante, or 1 minute less than package instructions.
4. Return to your sauce: season with salt, pepper, chili pepper and thyme and simmer for a couple of more minutes uncovered.
5. Meanwhile drain your pasta, reserving some cooking water.
6. In a large serving bowl add the reserved cooking water and the butter. Pour in the cooked pasta and the sauce, mix well. Check if some more salt is needed. Serve the pasta garnished with the freshly chopped parsley and freshly grated parmesan. Tuck in, it’s heavenly! Serve with some chilled Chardonnay.