Pappardelle with Mushrooms and Sage

Serves 4 as Main Dish, 8 as a Side Dish

Ingredients:

1 bag of al dente® pasta ,

1/2 c toasted walnuts (broken into smaller pieces)

16 oz baby bella or cremini mushrooms (sliced 1/4 in thick)

4 T heavy cream

1/2 c parmiggiano reggiano or grana padano cheese (freshly grated)

1/2 c red wine

bunch of large sage leaves (at least 12)

olive oil, knob of butter, salt and pepper

Directions:

Start to heat a pot of salted water on the stove top.

Coat a large saute pan with olive oil (1-2 T) and heat over med-high temp until it starts to bubble slightly. Toss in all of the sage leaves, making sure they are not touching. Allow them to fry for a few minutes before delicately turning them over and doing the same on the other side. Drain the sage leaves on a paper towel while you proceed with the rest of the recipe.

Using the same pan, add a bit more oil and a knob of butter. Once the butter has melted, add all of your sliced mushrooms and start to toss. At this point, you can add black pepper and salt to help to draw out more liquid. Continue to saute for another 4-5 min until the mushrooms have darkened in color and shrunken in size.

Turn the heat up to high and add the red wine. You want to reduce the wine to produce a lovely sauce, eliminating the alcohol taste but maintaining the richness and color. This may take a few minutes. Add the heavy cream and walnuts and stir, reducing a bit further. Add 1/2 c cheese, reserving the rest for garnish. Turn heat down to low or take pan off the burner altogether.

Cook pasta for 3 minutes. Before draining, reserve 1 cup of the cooking liquid. Drain pasta and transfer all of the pasta to your sauce pan, making sure the temperature is still on low.Toss your pasta in the sauce for up to a minute while gradually adding some of the starchy water until the sauce adheres nicely to the pappardelle.

Serve four entree size portions and garnish each plate with the remaining cheese, a nice drizzle of olive oil, sea salt, pepper and 2-3 perfectly fried sage leaves.

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