Mushrooms on mushrooms, and worth every bit of it. This is a deeply savoury, quietly luxurious pasta: golden pan-fried mushrooms for texture, a velvety Parmigiano cream for richness, and at the heart of it the Tesori del Matese Porcini Mushroom Cream with White Truffle, which brings the whole dish together.
Porcini are the aristocrats of the Italian woodland, meaty and nutty with a deep forest perfume. Paired with white truffle, they are a classic match, the earthy depth of one lifted by the delicate, garlicky aroma of the other. Stirred into warm cream, the porcini cream melts into a sauce that tastes as if it took hours, when in fact the whole dish is on the table in twenty-five minutes.
Tagliatelle, the long, ribbon-like egg pasta of Emilia-Romagna, is the ideal partner. Its rough, porous surface holds on to every last drop of sauce.
Prep: 10 minutes | Cook: 15 minutes | Serves 2
Ingredients
- 250g egg tagliatelle (fresh or dried)
- 2-3 tbsp Tesori del Matese Porcini Mushroom Cream with White Truffle
- 150g mixed mushrooms (chestnut, oyster, or wild if you can find them), sliced
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter
- 80ml double cream
- 50g finely grated Parmigiano Reggiano
- 1 small shallot, finely chopped
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
- A few drops of Tesori del Matese White Truffle Oil (optional, to finish)
- Freshly ground black pepper
- Salt, to taste
- Fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Method
1. Cook the pasta. Bring a large pan of well-salted water to a rolling boil and cook the tagliatelle until al dente: 2-3 minutes for fresh, 5-6 minutes for dried, or follow the packet. Before draining, save about 100ml of the starchy cooking water.
2. Brown the mushrooms. While the pasta cooks, melt the butter in a large frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms in a single layer, working in batches if needed, and leave them alone until golden and crisp at the edges. Overcrowding will make them steam rather than brown. Reduce the heat to medium, add the shallot and garlic, and cook for 1-2 minutes until soft and fragrant.
3. Build the sauce. Lower the heat, pour in the double cream and stir in the porcini and white truffle cream until smooth. Let it simmer very gently for 2 minutes, just enough to bring the flavours together. Add plenty of black pepper, but hold off on the salt for now.
4. Toss and emulsify. Take the pan off the heat. Add the drained tagliatelle and the grated Parmigiano, then pour in a splash of the reserved pasta water. Toss vigorously for a minute or so, adding more water as needed, until the cheese has melted and the sauce turns glossy and clings to every ribbon. Taste, and season with salt only if it needs it.
5. Serve. Plate straight away while piping hot. Finish with a few drops of white truffle oil if you like, a little more black pepper, and a scattering of parsley.
A note from the kitchen: white truffle is delicate and fades quickly with heat, so keep the sauce at a gentle simmer and always add the pasta off the heat. If you’d like the flavour deeper and darker, you can swap the porcini cream for our Black Truffle Sauce.
