Macaroni in France

First came mushroom duxelles, the quintessential French stuffing. I picked the easy to make recipe from a food column many years back - just chop mushrooms very finely. Heat olive oil, add 2-3 cloves finely chopped garlic and 1 finely chopped onion. Sweat them a bit, but don't let the onions brown. Now add mushrooms, salt and pepper. Cook on a low heat until all water dries up (usually 5-7 minutes), and let the mushrooms rest in the warm pan for a while.

I find it very useful to make a batch and stack it in the fridge for instant hunger pangs. Think mushroom on toast, or quick mushroom sandwiches with cheese. Or, my all time favorite pairing of this French flavor with the most basic of Italian pastas - the elbow macaroni.

All you need to do is boil the macaroni, and mix with the duxelles. The mushrooms already have plenty of olive oil and flavor, but top with parsley or oregano if you are feeling adventurous. Perfect for lunch!

Comments

Anonymous said…

I'm a little confused by the direction to wait 5-7 minutes until the water evaporates. My understanding of "to sweat" is to cook over a low heat in a small amount of heat. Although you dont mention it as an ingredient until later, it seems the fat in this recipe is olive oil. Where exactly is the water coming from? The mushrooms themselves? But not all mushrooms sweat an appreciable amount of water.

I just want to check to be sure I dont need to add water to the pan at some point.

April 12, 2008 at 1:10 PM

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