Pasta with Mushrooms & Spinach

Sautéing mushrooms for a creamy pasta

The key to this pasta is how you cook the mushrooms. They contain a lot of moisture. If you put them all in a small pan at once, they release that moisture and start to steam rather than fry. So use a large frying pan and let the mushrooms sit for a little while before tossing them. This gives the cut surfaces a chance to brown and helps the mushroom flavour hold its own alongside the cream and cheese. If your pan is small, cook them in two batches and combine them again afterwards.

Regular button mushrooms work perfectly well in this recipe. Chestnut mushrooms have a slightly firmer bite; oyster mushrooms give the pasta more variety in texture. Cut larger ones into smaller pieces so they cook at roughly the same time. Clean them with a brush or a damp cloth and trim any dry ends from the stems. You don’t have to wait for autumn to make this pasta: cultivated mushrooms are available all year round. That makes it a handy dish for a weeknight dinner.

The sauce doesn’t need a separate thickener. A splash of cooking water helps the cream and grated cheese cling to the pasta. So scoop out some water from the pasta pan before draining it. Then add it a little at a time: you want a sauce that coats the pasta, not a puddle at the bottom of the plate. Keep the spinach in mind, too. It wilts quickly and releases a little moisture. Let the leaves wilt before deciding whether you need any extra cooking water.

Feel free to use whatever pasta shape you already have at home. Tagliatelle goes well with the wide pieces of mushroom, while penne and fusilli are easy to toss in a frying pan. If you use a different shape, follow the cooking time on the packet. Finely grate the Parmesan and stir it into the sauce over a low heat. Taste before adding extra salt: both the cheese and the cooking water can already be quite salty.

If you’d like to mix things up, replace some of the button mushrooms with oyster mushrooms, or use another hard cheese that you enjoy grating. This will change the flavour, so start with a little less and add more to taste. The pasta already contains spinach and mushrooms; you can serve a simply dressed green salad alongside it, but you don’t need one to make the recipe. It’s best to get all the ingredients ready first and cook the pasta while you fry the mushrooms. That way, you can combine everything straight away at the end.