FoodPoint

2.03 Fettucine Boscaiola – Low-Fuss – Rice & Pasta

My spin on this pasta, usually made with field mushrooms and bacon.

Fairly simple, fairly quick, and definitely delicious.

Ingredients:

300g fresh fettucine

200g prosciutto, shredded

200g swiss brown mushrooms, sliced

500ml thickened or double cream

¼ cup grated parmesan cheese

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper

As you can see, I've changed the bacon to prosciutto, which is usually sold pre-sliced in most supermarkets. To shred it, simply roll the slice into a cigar, slice it lengthways, then slice it into chunks. It will unfold while cooking. You could also use a pair of kitchen scissors.

Feel free to use pancetta instead of prosciutto, as this is probably the traditional way, but sometimes I find that pancetta can be a bit chewy and tough.

For the mushrooms, I use (the clearly un-Italian) Swiss Brown, as I think it has a good flavour and keeps a decent texture. You can still use field mushrooms if you like, or portabella and button mushrooms are also great.

As with my Prawn & Chorizo Linguine recipe from Season 1, fresh pasta is preferable to dried as it cooks faster. If using dried pasta, I’ll leave it to you to decide at what point to cook it.

Method:

1. Place the oil and prosciutto into a pan over a high heat.

2. Once the prosciutto has begun to crisp up, add the mushrooms.

3. Reduce the heat to medium-high and sauté the mushrooms and prosciutto until browned and any liquid has evaporated.

4. Increase the heat back to high, pour in the cream, and stir until it begins to bubble.

5. Reduce the heat to medium-low and allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes.

6. While the sauce is simmering, bring a pot of lightly-salted water to the boil for the pasta.

7. Add the parmesan cheese to the sauce, stir until melted through, then leave to simmer for another 5 minutes or until thickened.

8. When the sauce is almost ready, add the pasta to the pot of boiling water and cook as per directions on the packet. (Usually 5-7 minutes for fresh or 11-15 minutes for dried.)

9. Taste the sauce. You may need to add some salt and pepper to balance the seasoning.

10. Drain the pasta, then add it to the sauce and stir until coated.

11. Serve as is, or with some extra parmesan cheese and pepper.

Serves 3-4, depending on serving sizes.

A video of this recipe is also available - https://youtu.be/1vS8OS-ECSI.