The Art of Cooking Pudu Pasta with Mushrooms in 20 Minutes

While working on my recent pasta story for Fall, I had the pleasure of recreating one of my favorite recipes that still feels luxurious and special, even on a weeknight. The recipe features pasta with Pudu, mushrooms, and comes together incredibly quickly. In this article, I will guide you through the process of cooking this dish from start to finish.

My Starting Point: Mixed Mushrooms

I begin by selecting a pound of mixed mushrooms. I have always been fond of mushrooms due to their quick cooking time and ease of preparation. The best part is that I don't even need to use my knife for this step, as I can simply tear the mushrooms into bite-sized pieces. After prepping all my mushrooms, everything else happens over at the stove.

Preparing the Stove

Next, I prepare the stove by bringing 16 cups of water to a boil and adding a significant amount of salt – approximately 1/4 cup or so for this amount of water. My Dutch oven is under medium-high heat with an additional 1/4 cup of olive oil. The first step is to crisp my Pudu, which requires laying it down in a single layer over the stove. When the Pudu is crispy and has shrunk quite a bit, I transfer it to a plate to drain off excess fat.

Crisping the Pudu

As I can see from the color of the Pudu, it's starting to take on a slightly darker hue. This indicates that it has crisped up significantly due to cooling. Now, with all that fat in the skillet, I'm going to add my mushrooms – which appear to be an abundance but will indeed shrink once cooked. To avoid crowding the pan and prevent steaming, I only add a portion of them initially. The goal is to let them brown quickly.

Browning the Mushrooms

I want to add these remaining mushrooms over high heat, allowing them to immediately start browning. This means not disturbing them for as long as possible so they take on color. It's been a minute or two since adding the first batch of mushrooms, and already they're starting to shrink significantly due to their quick cooking nature.

Adding Shallots and Seasoning

The next step is to add chopped shallots – two medium-sized ones in this case – and one teaspoon of pickled thyme leaves. My goal here is for the shallot to cook down until translucent before proceeding with seasoning. Once I've seasoned my dish with some freshly ground pepper and salt, it's now time to add 1 cup of chicken stock.

Adding Chicken Stock

At this point, my heat has decreased to medium, allowing me to let the sauce simmer while a thin layer of sauce coats the bottom. With my pasta – dried pappardelle – I will add everything in at once but finish cooking it within the sauce itself. To ensure that my noodles are perfectly cooked without overcooking them, I will undercook them by several minutes and then transfer them into the sauce for a final finishing touch.

Adding Pasta Water

Before adding the cream, I want to taste every minute or so until the sauce reaches its desired consistency. Once satisfied with this stage, I add 1 cup of pasta water, allowing me to adjust if necessary as it's essential that my noodles are perfectly cooked without being too soft.

Cooking the Cream and Finishing

Now, I'm going to cook the cream just enough for the sauce to slightly thicken and coat all my noodles. To avoid boiling the cream, which would make the dish greasy, I only need to cook it until the desired consistency is reached. With half of the crispy Pudu crumbled into my hands, I'll scatter this crunchy component throughout the pasta.

Finishing Touches

I'll finish my dish off with a pat of butter – something I always do when cooking pasta – which makes for a glossy and luxurious final product. It's essential to let no matter what; it coats every bit of pasta while also tightening up the sauce slightly. With everything cooked, I'll plate this beautiful dish over at the table.

Enhancing with Fresh Herbs

The final touch is a sprinkle of fresh thyme leaves on top – an element that adds brightness to the dish and prevents it from becoming too monotonous. A small drizzle of olive oil completes this recipe in just 20 minutes, showcasing how cooking can be both quick and impressive when done correctly.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: ena while back I did a pasta story for fall for the magazine and this is my favorite recipe from that story it's pasta with Pudo and mushrooms and even though it comes together in 20 minutes it feels really luxurious and special especially on a week night so here I have a pound of mixed mushrooms now I like mushrooms because they're quick cooking they're easy to prep I don't even have to use my knife for this part just tear them into bite-sized pieces okay all my mushrooms were prepped it came together pretty fast now everything else happens over at the stove this is 16 cups of water I add a lot of salt maybe for this amount of water up to 1/4 cup or so I have my Dutch oven under medium high heat and 1/4 cup of olive oil the first thing is I will crisp my Pudo I want to lay that down in a single layer when the Pudo is crisp I'll transfer to the plate to drain you can see the Pudo has shrunk quite a bit and it's starting to crisp and hold its shape like bacon Pudo will crisp up as it cools so I can see from the color it's starting to take on a slightly darker color and now leaving all of that fat in the skillet I'm going to add my mushrooms it looks like a lot of mushrooms but they also shrink quite a bit I want this over pretty high heat because I want to immediately start to Brown the mushrooms I want to let them cook more or less undisturbed so they start to take on color so it's only been a minute or two and the mushrooms are already shrinking quite a bit I didn't add quite all of them to begin with because I didn't want to Crow them too much I want to avoid steaming which would prevent Browning so in go the rest and I'm not adding salt at this phas because I don't want to draw out water from the mushrooms before they take on colors the mushrooms are really nicely Brown and tender it's time to add two medium chopped shallots and one teaspoon of picked thy leaves the goal here is to let the shallot cook out and wait till it gets translucent and now I'm finally going to season so some freshly grounded pepper and some salt now it's time to add 1 cup chicken stock so at this point my heat is basically on medium and I want to let this simmer until there's just a very thin layer of so coating the bottom while my sauce is reducing a bit I will add the pasta this is dried paperell which isn't always the easiest thing to find very often you see it fresh I like doing dried pasta at home because it gives you a chance to infuse the pasta with the flavors of the sauce so all all in at once but I'm going to finish cooking the pasta in the sauce so I'm going to undercook my pasta by several minutes these noodles are about 2 minutes out from being alente and this is when I want to transfer them into my sauce and adding a cup of pasta water to help finish it this is a stage where you can be tasting every minute or so to see the dness of the noodles I think they're about done I'm going to taste the noodles to see yeah I don't want to cook them any more than this so now I'm going to add the cream if you boil cream too hard it can break so you'll get something that looks a little bit greasy and I don't want that I'm just going to cook it enough until the sauce produces slightly and all the noodles are coated I'm going to crumble in half of the Pudo you can see it got really crispy just crumbling this in my hands I like having the crunchy component kind of scattered throughout the pasta so you get sumon every bite so now I'm going to kill the Heat and this is something else I do every time I cook pasta I finish no matter what with a little bit of butter the butter makes for a really glossy luxurious pasta and it kind of tightens up the sauce a little bit so that it coats every bit of pasta everything is done I'm going to Plate it over at the table the sauce really benefits from like a minute rest or so and then it just does a better job putting all the noodles more crumbled Pudo on top and then because we had some in the sauce already for a final bit of brightness some fresh thyme leaves it wouldn't hurt to give it a final drizzle of olive oil there you go it's dinner in about 20 minutes everything happens in one pot and the payoff is huge\n"