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Simple Italian Mushroom Penne Pasta – Recipe

Using your imagination

It is common for Italians to sit down to a large bowl of pasta for lunch or as a starter. For quick dinners or lunch, I enjoy mixing up various types of pasta dishes (I cannot make it long without a pasta fix). The recipe below has endless varieties. First try the recipe and then the next time you make it, add any number of other delights including sun dried tomatoes, artichokes, fresh mozzarella, meatballs or Italian sausage, etc.

Ingredients (4 to 5 servings):

• 1 pound fresh button mushrooms sliced (could use portabella mushrooms)
• 1/2 cup dry red wine
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 pound penne (fresh if you can make or find it)
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 pound grated parmesan cheese
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 teaspoon fresh basil (you can substitute an equal amount of dry if you don’t have fresh)
• 1 teaspoon fresh oregano (you can substitute an equal amount of dry if you don’t have fresh)
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt

Preparation:

Rinse the mushrooms and place them in a frying pan. Add the wine and butter and cook on high until all the liquid is gone – about 20 minutes. Set them aside. Meanwhile, cook the penne in a Dutch oven containing a few quarts of boiling salt water for about 10 minutes. Drain through a colander once the penne has cooked and make sure most of the water is gone but the pasta is still hot. Put the pasta back in the Dutch oven along with the olive oil, parmesan, garlic, basil, oregano, pepper flakes, salt, and pepper and mix. Now if you would like, try some of the other ingredients I mention in the introductory paragraph. My family and I will eat this as a main course for dinner sometimes we like it so much.

Enjoy.

Jack Botticelli

I will be catering several weddings this spring, so I came up with my own version of Italian wedding cookies, after many trials, and a few errors to produce a delicate buttery cookie that is made with ground nuts. There are several different types of these cookies which include the Mexican Wedding cookies, often coated with a mixture of cinnamon and confectioners’ sugar. The Russian Tea Cakes which can be made with ground hazelnuts, and Italian Wedding cookies which traditionally use ground almonds. All of them are delicious, and each recipe utilizes a different proportion of butter and flour. They are a very good suprise in you mouth, delicate little cookie. I would try all different types, or versions to figure out the one you like best.

These Italian Wedding cookies are buttery, delicate, and have a wonderful flavor. This is a very easy recipe to make, and they are worth the effort put forth for every cookie and crumble left.

Italian Wedding Cookies:

1½ cups unsalted butter

¾ cup confectioners’ sugar

¾ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups finely ground almonds

4 ½ teaspoons vanilla bean paste

3 cups of sifted all purpose flour

1/3 cup confectioners sugar for dipping

First, preheat your oven to 325 degrees if you have an electric oven and about 300 to 315 if you have a gas oven. Gas ovens cook much faster than an electric oven depending on the oven. If you have a convection oven I recommend turning the fan off if you can, it will burn the cookies before they are fully cooked.

First you will soften and mix the butter in a bowl, and you will sift and then add the ¾ cup confectioners sugar and salt to the butter. You will then mix the butter, and sugar with salt mixture until it is light and fluffy. You will now add the ground almonds and the vanilla bean paste. You will then add the sifted flour in until it just mixed, you do not want to over mix, or overwork the dough. The cookies will not be very light in texture if you do.

Take about one teaspoon of dough in your hand at a time, and roll it into a ball. You will then place the rolled cookie dough balls on the parchment paper or an ungreased cookie sheet if you do not have parchment paper. You will then bake the cookies for 15-20 minutes. You will want to watch the first batch fairly closely and turn halfway through baking to ensure even cooking. You want to make sure to get them cooked but not too brown. Once the cookies are done you will remove from the oven, and cool the cookies for about five minutes, and then roll in the left over confectioners sugar.

You will then hold these little delicate cookies until you are ready for service.