If you are a fan of Gorgonzola cheese and Chanterelle mushrooms, this recipe combines some ingredients that offer some surprise to the usual fare of pasta with a cream sauce. Here is some information on these ingredients. Chanterelles are tasty and reportedly good for you too! If you are allergic to blue cheese, (like me, darn it) a substitute is goat cheese as it has some ‘bite’ and body to it. It’s warm out, but a wild and blustery wind has just come up all of a sudden. Makes me think that it is a good night for comfort food.
“Gorgonzola (Italian pronunciation: [ɡorɡonˈdzɔla]) is a veined Italian blue cheese, made from unskimmed cow’s and/or goat’s milk. It can be buttery or firm, crumbly and quite salty with a ‘bite’ from its blue veining.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorgonzola_(cheese)Retrieved October 20, 2010.
Chanterelles are mushrooms “…antharellus cibarius, commonly known as the chanterelle or golden chanterelle, is a fungus. It is probably the best known species of the genus Cantharellus, if not the entire family of Cantharellaceae. It is orange or yellow, meaty and funnel-shaped. On the lower surface, underneath the smooth cap, it has gill-like ridges that run almost all the way down its stipe, which tapers down seamlessly from the cap. It has a fruity smell, reminiscent of apricots and a mildly peppery taste (hence its German name, Pfifferling) and is considered an excellent edible mushroom.”
Chanterelles are relatively high in vitamin C (0.4 mg/g fresh weight),[6] very high in potassium (about 5%, dry weight),[7] and among the richest sources of vitamin D known, with ergocalciferol (vitamin D2) as high as 2500 IU/100 grams fresh weight.[8]” Retrieved from Wikipedia October 20, 2010.
This recipe is translated from Sabina Kookt!: (Sabina Cooks!) It’s a quick and easy recipe.
Ingredients
2 ½ cups fresh pasta
1 ½ cups chanterelle mushrooms
4 ounces blue cheese (gorgonzola)
1 cup of cream
1 teaspoon of Italian Seasoning
1 shallot
1 clove of garlic
Olive oil
Directions
Put water on to cook the pasta. Cut the shallot up and add to the olive oil in a thick-bottomed pan. Mince the garlic or use a garlic press and add that to the shallot. Cook on a low fire.
Brush the chanterelles clean with a paper towel. Trim the stems and add to the already cooking garlic and shallot. Add the Italian Seasoning and stir together.
Add the blue cheese in blocks, then the cream. Let the cheese melt.
Cook the pasta until it’s ready. (Follow directions on package, if it is from the grocery store.)
Serve the pasta on warmed plates topping it with the blue cheese sauce and some Italian Seasoning.
Enjoy!
Thanks Sabina, for the great recipe!
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