Chanterelle-Cream Sauce with Fresh Pasta

Normally I would make my own pasta, which makes this a much less fast meal. If you can get good fresh pasta, this takes no longer than for the pasta water to boil and the pasta becoming al dente. 

Homemade Pasta

Making your own pasta sounds a lot more daunting than it is. You usually reckon a multiple of about

• 1 egg,
• 100 g of flour or semolina,
• a pinch of salt and
• a teaspoon of olive oil optionally to keep the dough smooth

(Three times this amount makes about enough for four resonable eaters.)

Mix all the ingredients and knead until you get a dry dough. If you have time, allow it to sit for about 30 minutes, perhaps overnight in the fridge, making sure it does not dry out. This allows the flour and the egg to mix and create the best texture (I’m told it’s got something to do with the gluten in the flour and the protein molecules in the egg but I’m not really au fait with the science behind all this). Roll out the dough, as thinly as you can with a rolling pin; a pasta machine setting of about 5 out of 6 is great, cut into strips of the desired width, noodles to the uninitiated, dust with flour to prevent sticking and form nests. These can be left to dry, frozen or used straight away. I have a pasta tree to dry them on, but that is more than a casual pasta maker will want to bother with.

Chanterelle and Cream Sauce

You can make this will the pasta water is coming to the boil.

What you need

 

• 150 g chanterelles, cut into slices with the tougher stems finely chopped
• 2 tblsp Olive oil or butter, perhaps half and half
• 12 medium onion, finely chopped
• 2 or more cloves of garlic
• 100 to 150  ml white Port, Madeira or Marsala (I prefer the first even though in the pictures madeira is used)
• 2 vegetable stock cubes
• 100 ml crème fraîche
• 150 ml of fresh cream
• 1 tablespoon dried Italian herbs
• Cajun Spice (see here), and if needed salt and pepper to taste

What you do

Clean the chanterelles, ideally with a brush as washing them under the tap makes them soggy

Cut the tougher stems and chop them finely.

Heat the olive oil and/or butter.

When it is hot, add the chanterelle stems, the onions and last the garlic and stir fry. Make sure neither onions nor garlic colour.

Add the sliced chanterelles and fry until the onions are golden.

Sprinkle a goodly pinch of Cajun Spice over the mixture.

Add the Madeira and the vegetable stock cubes and reduce to about half the volume.

Now stir in the crème fraîche, again allow to bubble vigorously.

Add the fresh cream and the herbs and reduce until the sauce has thickened. (No flour needed! See earlier postings.)

Finally season to taste with more Cajun spice salt and pepper.

Pour over the fresh pasta cooked al dente (which with fresh pasta is a matter of a couple of minutes!)

Remarks

Serve immediately: the eaters wait for the dish, not the other way round! If this is a problem, prepare the sauce to the point before you add the liquids and the water is boiling (to reheat it if you don't have to wait too long is no big deal).

Crème fraîche can be quite acidic, which is part of the appeal of this sauce. This is counterbalanced by the sweetness of the white Port (apparently in Asian and molecular cooking the idea is to combine as many tastes as the tongue is capable of detecting; what is missing here is a bitter flavour…). If the sauce tastes too sour, which should not be the case if you get a good crème fraîche, you can add a bit of Madeira at the end, making sure the sauce only simmers to preserve the taste.