MISO-MUSHROOM PASTA (serves 2)
by Yi Jun Loh, Jun and Tonic
We love how the light tannins and berry flavors of our 2021 Carneros Pinot Noir bring out the earthy richness of the miso butter and mushrooms in this dish From Jun and Tonic also posted on Food52.
INGREDIENTS:
7 oz pasta
4 oz mixed mushrooms
2-4 tbsp. vegetable oil
1-3 tsp. sherry vinegar
2 tsp. red miso paste
3 tbsp. butter, softened
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 c heavy cream (or liquid of choice)
1 scallion, finely sliced
salt & pepper
Part 1:
Chop or pull apart mushrooms into bite-sized pieces. Put on a large pot of water to boil to cook the pasta (timing will depend on what noodles you choose).
Heat a large skillet over medium/high with 1 tbsp. of vegetable oil and sauté mushrooms in batches for 3-5 minutes until nicely browned. At the end, splash with sherry vinegar, toss and set aside. Repeat this step for as many batches as you need to not crowd the pan.
Part 2:
Cook pasta according to directions on the packaging minus one minute.
Whisk together red miso paste and butter until smooth.
Stir-fry minced garlic in 1 tbsp. of oil over medium heat for about a minute, until fragrant. Add the cooked mushrooms and the miso butter and stir to combine. Lastly, add the heavy cream and bring to a simmer.
Drain pasta and add the noodles directly to the pan of mushroom sauce. Stir until the pasta is well coated. The pasta will finish cooking the last minute in the sauce.
To Finish:
Portion the pasta into two bowls, and top with sliced scallions and fresh cracked black pepper.
Notes from Our Kitchen:
This recipe is really tasty and really simple but as with many things that are simple, you don’t want to mess up the main ingredient. Non-negotiable is cooking the mushrooms in batches. If you overcrowd the pan, you will get rubbery mushrooms that are yuck.
To be on the safe side, I cooked my mushrooms in three batches for this recipe. I used lion's mane, shiitake, and tree oyster mushrooms, but any mushrooms can be used as a substitution. You could have more diversity or use whatever you have available.
I added a tablespoon of Wesson vegetable oil to my pan and heated it to a medium-high temperature. Our stovetop is electric so I have to be careful as the temperature can’t be changed as quickly as you can change a gas stove. For my first batch, I’ve set a timer for four minutes so that I have an idea of how long the mushrooms have been in the pan and I am keeping an eye on them. You want them to have space between each of the mushrooms so that they can get the brown that you want for this recipe without steaming and getting overcooked.
Because I’m cooking and batches I added a little bit of fresh vegetable oil to the pan each time I changed oysters. You can see in the photos that my pan is getting darker after each cook, this is from both the mushrooms and the sherry vinegar, but there isn’t any burning smell so I am not worried about it.
Now that the mushrooms are cooked, and they had my attention the whole time to make sure that I didn’t mess up the very important step of cooking the mushrooms properly, I’m going to put on a pot of water to boil for the noodles and then move onto the next steps in the recipe. I have butter in a dish on the side of my oven, so it is nice and soft for the miso butter. The softer the butter, the easier it is to combine. You can also use a mixer for this, or a spatula or a whisk. If you haven’t made miso butter, you are in for a real treat.
As I mentioned, I didn’t mind the bit of brown from the mushroom cook and so used the same one for the sauce. I let the pan cool down while I prepped the rest of my ingredients. Don’t want to burn the garlic! This prep step is something that you could’ve done when you broke apart/sliced your mushrooms, but because I was making more vegetable stock (yay prep day!) and we have limited kitchen space, I waited until the second half of the recipe to get my garlic ready. If you’re in a crunch for time, you would want to have chopped the garlic already and have the water waiting for you.
You want to get a really good mix to combine the miso paste and butter so you don’t have salty chunks of miso. But after that, the sauce comes together really quickly. I added some olive oil to my same pan, now at a medium-low temperature, and sauteed the garlic for about a minute.
I put the pasta in the water (the fresh kind I used for this only takes a few minutes) and I let the noodles cook in salted water for just about two minutes.
Once the mushrooms, garlic, miso butter and cream came to a bubble on the stove, I turned off the heat. I added my noodles, and mixed until the pasta was coated in yummy sauce.
You can also substitute vegetable stock or use a lower fat content milk if you want a lighter dish.
I called my husband before remembering the sliced green onion, so I topped our bowls with some sliced green onion after the photo.
Yum yum!
