In the Kitchen with My City Ktichen

Kashia Cave, Founder and President of My City Kitchen, a public charity organization that carries the mission to encourage children to take a keen interest in what they eat, where their food comes from, and especially how to prepare it, was in the kitchen demonstrating a recipe for Pasta with Creamy Mushroom Sauce that she discovered on a recent trip to Italy.

Flat Pasta with cream Mushroom Sauce (From Tuscany)

1pk wholegrain or Spinach pasta

3 1/2 oz prosciutto ham or country ham

11oz fresh mushrooms (baby Portobello, oyster, chanterelles mushrooms) 

Juice of ½ a lemon

½ bunch fresh Italian parsley

½ bunch fresh basil

½ pint or 1 cup heavy cream

½ cup beef stock

1 clove garlic

1 1/2tbsp butter

2/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan Cheese

Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Directions:

1.      Cook pasta according to the directions. Cut ham into thin strips. Clean the mushrooms, slice them thin and drizzle with the lemon juice.

2.      In a saucepan, melt ½ tablespoon of butter and add the crush garlic. Simmer until soft. Pour in the cream and beef stock and allow to cook down until smooth and dense/thick.

3.      In a frying pan melt 1 tablespoon of butter. Add the mushroom and sauté until soft. Mince the parsley and stir it into the mushrooms with the strips of ham. Simmer until ready to serve, and season with salt and pepper.

4.      Season the cream sauce with salt and lemon juice (if needed) and pepper, pour over the hot noodles. Top pasta with the ham-mushroom mixture and fresh basil leaves. Add fresh grated parmesan cheese and ground pepper.

NOTE: In Italy this dish is called Paglia e fieno (straw and hay). Recipe taken from Regional Italian Cuisine by Reinhardt Hess and Sabine Salzer.