A little Roxy Music humor, to celebrate the tastiest meal I’ve cooked in quite a while. The Long Suffering Husband was dispatched to the market with instructions to buy something “different,” and he came home with $18 worth of morels (about four decent-sized ones). I was a bit skeptical. The last time I used morels, they were tiny and not very flavorful. And who knows how long these had sat in the store? They felt a bit dry.
Still, I consulted some recipes, and concluded right away that it had to be pasta with a cream sauce. I rinsed and sliced the shrooms, which are odd-looking little guys, like penises equipped with brains. The ultimate contradiction, right? I tossed them in a pan with some chopped onion (not having shallots on hand), garlic, and plenty of butter.
After sautéing these bits, I put in a splash of wine (more on that below), sprinkled some flour over, and used one part vegetable broth and one part half-and-half cream to make the sauce. Once it thickened, some wilted baby spinach and a grating of Bellavitano cheese finished the dish.
We paired it with an interesting choice: Santa Barbara Wine Company Chardonnay 2009. This is a wine we bought for half price from a store trying to get rid of its older stock (original price, $17.99). Usually this is a mistake. Unless they are made to lay down, most white wines are over the hill after a few short years. And the passage of time increases the chance that any wine will oxidize due to leaks in the seal. But chardonnays do age rather well, we have found. A really mature chardonnay has a distinctive, rich, mellow flavor, like buttery toast with a char on it. It is a rare pleasure.
The Santa Barbara Wine Company has since changed its name to “The Santa Barbara Collection,” making itself sound like an upscale shopping center or a section in a department store. Ugh. But I wouldn’t mind trying more of their wines.
This bottle was pleasingly dry and had plenty of acidity to stand up to the cream in the sauce. Tasting notes online show that the wine originally had more citrus and floral notes, which have since transformed to deeper, more caramel-like flavors. Still bursting with flavor after seven years, it was a perfect match for the shrooms. The morels turned out to be powerful, yet delicate. Nowhere near as overwhelming as shiitake or porcini, and yet they permeated the dish. I understand why people become fanatical about hunting them down.
I just simply adore mushrooms, and your recipe is quite similar to some of hubby’s pastas, exception made for the butter (he uses olive oil). Looks great!
Yes, I used a combination of butter and olive oil. Usually I stick to olive oil, but for this creamy recipe, I wanted the butter flavor. mmmm, it was sooooo good.
Mmmm. Sounds good. I don’t think I’ve ever cooked with morels. (Penis with brains, yes indeed!)
They are funny looking, aren’t they? A very expensive treat. They grow hereabouts, but you have to tromp through the woods a lot to know where to find them. Also they must be collected at just the right season and state of ripeness, before they get full of insects.
If only we had porcini mushrooms here. I would definitely be out searching for them.
I love tromping through the woods to look for things like that (although I’d be afraid of getting the wrong mushrooms). When I lived in VT, I used to go out looking for wild grapes and black raspberries. That was a huge success. I did some foraging for fiddleheads, but I never found any. Eventually I gave up and just decided to head over to the Co-op and fork out the cash. I sure do miss those!
Wouldn’t it be fun to take pigs out to search for truffles? I’d love to do that. Do they still use pigs? I wonder why they don’t use dogs?
Yes, I am afraid of the wrong mushrooms too, but there are some safe ones, and morels are pretty easy to recognize. I love fiddleheads, but like you I have to buy them 🙂
Maybe the pig vs. the dog is a traditional thing? I’m sure dogs would be great at finding truffles!
I would think dogs would probably do a great job. Maybe it’s just funnier to have a pig on a leash?
Indeed it is!
I wish you could post the smell too
Heavenly!
Penises with brains would be a scary thing. The only reason we stand a chance today is because they are dumb f*ckers. 🙂
LOL! But they are so moronic sometimes that I can hardly believe it. Especially the ones that belong to politicians with a lot to lose. They seem to have the lowest IQ’s of all.
I have always wanted to cook with fresh morels but haven’t yet found them at a growers market. Very tasty looking dish there LM. Penises with brains? Tee hee…
If you spot some, go for it! They are expensive but worth a splurge 🙂
Ps and I appreciated the Roxy Music humour too. Chuckle….
Thanks 🙂 It’s a favorite song of mine.
Can’t say that I like the look of morels, penis envy or not 😉 But your recipe got my mouth watering. Once I have my gas back, I shall try this.
Yes, they are ugly little guys, aren’t they? It just goes to show that looks are not everything 🙂
Morel than this ^^ lol
But you’re right, these mushrooms are so tasty ….but so expensive 😦
http://www.750g.com/recettes_morilles.htm
Ooooh, potato gratin with morels, that sounds really good!
Penis with brains! You crack me up! What type of pasta did you use?
Great question! I used organic gemelli by Garofalo. Yum, yum, yum! It has a great bite to it.
Thanks, going to have to make this!
A relative of mine told me a sad story once of having splurged on morels from a market, and spent a great deal of time cleaning them, and yet they remained impossibly (and disgustingly) worm-infested. Like, they put them in the pan, and little white things started to crawl out! They all ended up in garbage;
Ever since, I’ve been too afraid to try them myself, though I do love them in restaurants. Glad yours turned out better.
Ah, that person was cheated. Competent mushroom hunters don’t sell worm-infested goods. I’ve never had a worm. So, I encourage you to give them a try!
June, here in Virginia, nearly sets folks into a morel frenzy–and nearly everyone locally around me has their favorite “secret” shroom hunting spots that they swear they’ll take to their graves.
I feel totally left out as I cannot stand the texture of mushrooms, although at this point in my life, I will force myself to swallow down food with mushrooms in it as long as they’ve been pureed to a silky sheen.
My brother is constantly sending me pictures of the garbage bags full of morels he’s picking, and people around me usually leave gifts of excess morels in one another’s mailboxes.
Why can’t they leave chocolate chip cookies??
But the recipe looks divine otherwise–including that lovely Chard.
Bon appetit!
Oh, how sad, to be deprived of the delights of the shroom except in puréed form! I have the same problem with peas. I can’t stand those little shells on them.