Pasta with Home-Grown Mushrooms (with Recipe!)
Keep them in the dark, in a damp place, and don’t give them anything to drink after midnight. Have I brought Gremlins into the house? No, king oyster mushrooms, but the instructions are largely the same. And just like those Gremlins, the mushrooms are cute too—and difficult to slaughter…
Those king oyster mushrooms grow from a large block that has been sitting in our utility room for a week. I regularly sneak into the utility room, open the moving box where our friend Eryngii (that’s his official name) is hiding, and spray him with a plant mister. He’s not a difficult pet: he likes his peace and quiet and prefers to keep growing a little in a dark, damp place—which is why there’s the moving box (dark) and the utility room (damp). The block he grows on is made from sawdust, a leftover from a furniture company. The sawdust is, of course, steamed and cleaned before the mushrooms are grown on it. Mushroom spores are inserted into the block and, after a few weeks in the dark, all sorts of tiny mushrooms popped out of it. And they grow quickly!
Sorry, sorry
Normally, of course, you simply buy those mushrooms at the greengrocer’s or supermarket, but I received a block like this at home as a promotion for king oyster mushrooms. These oyster mushrooms come from the Netherlands; soon you’ll be able to buy them at Appie. Is a block of mushrooms in the utility room a good idea? I don’t know, because after a week of caring for it with the plant mister, I felt a bond with our block. Yesterday, the time had come: we were going to eat it. Not the whole thing, just a few large mushrooms, but still. I felt like a traitor, a murderer, when I went into the utility room with a sharp little knife. While softly saying sorry, sorry to it, I cut a few large mushrooms from the block.
In the pasta
The mushrooms are large and firm and have a grey-brown cap. According to the description, they also remain firm when fried, and taste spicy and slightly nutty. Unlike the ordinary button mushroom or that ubiquitous portobello, which, to be honest, I always find tastes a little like nothing. The first mushroom harvest of this autumn went into the pasta, and it was delicious. And the great thing is: it just keeps growing, so we can probably eat another three times from that block in the utility room. Sorry, Eryngii.
How to make pasta with king oyster mushrooms
- Cut the mushrooms into large pieces. Put them in a heavy-bottomed frying pan with the finely chopped herbs and place over the heat—without oil or butter.
- The mushrooms will brown, start to smell delicious and shrink a little. Once they have browned slightly, add the olive oil and finely chopped garlic clove. Toss everything together.
- Add the chicken-style pieces, mustard and heavy cream to the pan. Grind plenty of black pepper over the pan. Stir everything together and let it simmer over medium heat. The cream will also brown slightly and thicken a little.
- Meanwhile, cook the pasta.
- Taste the mushroom sauce: does it need more salt and pepper? Drain the pasta and stir it through the sauce, along with the chopped walnuts or pine nuts (you can leave these out if you like, but I think they’re delicious). Sprinkle some fresh thyme over the pasta before serving; it looks lovely.
