Mushrooms + Red Wine = Delicious

Growing up my parents had a statue of W.C. Fields.  I thought it was just a weird home decor they had at the time (although I am pretty sure Babs and Big Al still have it up in the attic).  However as of late my mantra has been a quote from W.C. Fields..."I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food".  This post is dedicated to that little statue that will forever be in my head when I think of my parent's living room.    

I set out one night to make the Creamy Mushroom Fettuccini from Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s book Appetite for Reduction (it is a must have for sure, I haven’t made one thing out of it that isn’t delicious the baked onion rings are amazing?!?!).  

Well I was making a few tweaks to the recipe, using up some fresh herbs that were going to start going bad, some shallots I had laying around when I got to the step to add some white wine.  So I galloped (yep pretty sure that happened) over to the wine fridge to find that WHAT?!?! I am out of white wine?  How is this possible?  Well in a moment of necessity I used some red wine I had on hand and low and behold this dish was born.  I have made it several times since and even though I now have a well stocked wine fridge with white wine I keep going back to the red.  I know this isn’t the traditional Marsala wine sauce with Marsala Wine, but I am not that traditional lately.

I set out this evening to have some chickpea cutlets on top and although they were okay, they weren't great...more perfecting is needed.  Maybe next time...until then you get the sauce and pasta, your welcome :).

These can easily be made gluten free by using a gluten free past.  The mushroom soup I use here can be found at Whole Foods, it is the Imagine brand and is really quite good(it was on sale last week so I stocked up so be ready for some more recipes starring this awesome soup).  I even used it on Thanksgiving for vegan green bean casserole and the family barely noticed the difference, but with fried onions on top who would?!

Salud!

Mushroom Marsala with Whole Wheat Fettuccini (4 servings)

Essential Equipment

Stock Pot

Large Sauce Pan

1 tbsp vegetable broth

2 shallots - finely chopped

2 cloves garlic - minced

3 cups sliced white mushrooms (cremini or baby bella would work here as well)

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

1 tsp rosemary

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

½ cup dry red wine (better take a sip or a couple sips first to make sure it is just right)

2 tbsp cornstarch

2 cups portabella mushroom soup

8 oz whole wheat fettuccini

Green onions or scallions for garnish

In a large pot, boil water for pasta.  Add a tablespoon of salt to the water and add pasta.  Cook per the instructions on the package.  (this is not included in the photo video).  Drain and place to the side until sauce is complete.

In the meantime, in a large sauce pan on medium heat add vegetable broth, add garlic and shallots.  Cook until shallots are browning, stirring often to not burn the garlic. 

Add mushrooms to the pan and stir.  Add additional broth if need to prevent sticking.  Once mushrooms start to cook down add in the salt, pepper, rosemary and balsamic vinegar.  

Once mushrooms have cooked, add red wine to deglaze the pan.  Cook until wine reduces by half.  

Add cornstarch and stir into mushroom/wine mixture.  Add in mushroom soup and cook until sauce darkens and thickens (about 5-7 minutes).  

Place pasta on plate, top with sauce and green onions.  

Can be refrigerated for up to 4 days (still good reheated for lunch or dinner another day)