Creamy mushroom tagliatelle
The trattoria's funghi della casa: mushrooms seared hard in batches until they brown, the pancetta taken off the heat and set aside, the wine lifting the first brown off the pan, and the cream — which is the last thing that goes in, not the first — folded into the starchy water of the tagliatelle off the heat, with the parmesan and a long grind of the black pepper on the plate.
Inspired by
The funghi della casa at the small trattoria, where the plate is the whole pan and the cream is the last move, not the first. The home move that melts the butter, adds the cream, and then throws the mushrooms in loses exactly the browning the plate is after — the mushroom's own sugars taken to a brown, not a pool — and the sauce on the plate tastes of the sear, not of the cream. The pan-heat page is the one to read before this page, because the batch sear is the whole dish and the cream is the coat the batch gives it.
Technique notes
The mushroom's sear is the high end of pan-heat, done in batches so each piece sits on the flat of the pan long enough to take a brown, and the pancetta is the frying page done slow and off the heat, the fat rendered and the crisp set aside. The sauce is the sauces 101 emulsify-and-season at the edge, with the starchy water of the noodles doing the thickening the flour would, and the cream going in last, off the heat, so the sauce comes out as a coat, not a pool.
Why the restaurant does it this way
The bistro — and the trattoria, here — is not interested in the cream in the way a home kitchen is. The cream is the coat, not the dish, and the dish is the mushroom's sugars taken to a brown, and the batch sear is the move that gives the plate its edge. The pancetta goes in first, off the heat, because the fat it gives up is the sauce's body, and the crisp is set aside for the plate, because the crisp on the plate is the texture the sauce needs. The wine goes in to lift the first brown off the bottom, and the cream goes in last, off the heat, with the starchy water of the tagliatelle doing the thickening the flour would, and the parmesan and the pepper on the plate. The whole plate is the pan, and the pan is the pan-heat move done batch on batch, and the cream is the last move the pan gives it.
Equipment
- A heavy, flat pan wide enough to lay the mushrooms in a single layer — the batch sear needs the flat, and the sauce needs the same pan
- A deep pot with plenty of water for the tagliatelle
- A wooden spoon and a small jug, for the mantecare off the heat
Ingredients
- 200 g (7 oz) tagliatelle, for the two
- 400 g (1 lb) mixed mushrooms, torn into pieces that fit a bite
- 80 g (3 oz) pancetta, thin-sliced, for the fat and the crisp
- 3 cloves garlic, sliced thin, for the lift
- 120 ml (½ cup) dry white, for the lift off the bottom
- 120 ml (½ cup) cream, for the coat
- 40 g (¼ cup) parmesan, grated, for the mantecare
- 10 g (a small handful) parsley, finely cut
- 3 ml (½ tsp) black pepper, ground long, for the plate
- Salt, for the water and the pot
Method
- Set the deep pot of water on with the salt for the tagliatelle, and put the pancetta in the heavy pan on the low end. Let the pancetta take the heat — the fat rendering out and the crisp going pale gold, 4–5 minutes — and then take the crisp off the pan and set it aside on a paper towel, and leave the fat in the pan. This is the frying move done slow and off the heat, the fat doing the sauce's body while the crisp does the plate's texture.
- Turn the pan to the high end and add the mushrooms in batches, enough that each piece sits on the flat of the pan in a single layer, and let the batch go to a deep, even brown before turning each piece. This is the pan-heat move and the whole dish — the mushroom's sugars taken to a brown, and a batch that sits in a pool of its own liquid is a batch that has steamed, not seared, and the plate is the worse for it. When the batch is done, set it on a plate off the pan and do the next batch.
- Add the garlic to the same pan, off the heat, and let it take the fat for 1 minute, and then pour in the white and let it bubble and reduce by half, lifting the first brown off the bottom. This is the sauces 101 move — the wine lifting the brown and the reduction making the liquid a coat, and the garlic going in last because the garlic takes the heat quickly and the note it gives the plate is a lift, not a brown.
- Take the pan off the heat, add the cream and stir, and then bring the pan back to the low end and bring the sauce to a thin coat on the back of a spoon. 2–3 minutes, the cream doing the thickening the flour would, and the coat the sauce needs before the plate.
- Bring the salted pot to a rolling boil and drop in the tagliatelle. When it is nearly done, slip it into the pan off the heat, along with a ladle of the starchy water — this is the mantecatura: the starchy water doing the thickening the sauce needs, and the parmesan and the parsley folded in, and the whole thing brought off the heat to a coat on the back of a spoon. Scatter the pancetta crisp over the plate, grind the pepper long on top, and plate while the coat is still a sheet.
Common failures
- A pot of watery mushrooms on top of a separate pool of sauce. The batch went into a pan that was too small, or the batch was too deep, and the mushroom's own liquid sat under the pieces instead of the pieces sitting on the brown. Batch the sear, let each batch go to a deep, even brown before the next, and the plate is the brown, not the pool.
- A thin, split sauce that reads as a pool of fat on top of a watery pool underneath. The cream went in while the pan was still hot enough to push the emulsion apart, or the starchy water was skipped. Let the sauce cool before the cream goes in, and lift a ladle of the starchy water off the pot before the pasta goes in — that water is the thickening the cream needs, and the mantecatura is what makes the coat.
- A plate that tastes of garlic and not of mushroom. The garlic went in with the first batch and took the heat for the length of the whole sear, and the note it gives the plate is a burn, not a lift. The garlic goes in with the wine, after the batch is off the pan, and the lift it gives is the note the plate needs, not the brown it takes.
- A tagliatelle that reads as separate from the sauce, the two of them sitting side by side on the plate. The mantecatura was skipped, or the pasta went into a sauce that had not come down to a coat first. The starchy water does the thickening the sauce needs, the parmesan does the coat, and the whole thing needs to be brought to a coat on the back of a spoon before the plate.
Variations & substitutions
- A no-pancetta version. Skip the pancetta and let the mushroom's own liquid do the fat's body, with a thin film of the brown-butter going in with the wine — the same move, a different edge, and the plate does not lose the sear it needs.
- A porcini version. A handful of the porcini goes into the first batch with the mixed mushroom, and the plate comes out with a deeper note under the sear, and the cream and the parmesan do the rest. The batch sear does not change, and the mushroom does.
- A whole-pan version, for the table. The same plate, the pan set at the center of the table, the pancetta crisp and the pepper ground long on top, and the sauce coming to the plate with the pan — the order-of-operations move, the pan doing the work the plate needs.
What to serve with it
A green salad with a thin oil and the lemon from the plate, the baguette from this section torn up under the sauce, and a cold water drink at the table. On the same axis, the lobster & cheddar mac and cheese in this section is the same creamy logic with a crust on top — the bread doing the parmesan’s job, and the bistro onion soup is this plate’s bistro ancestor taken as far as the broth: the long browning, a cream-and-herb sauce on top, and the bread at the edge of the plate.
More
Back to Restaurant · Techniques (pan heat, frying, sauces 101, noodles, brown butter)