If my Saturday morning IG stories are any indication, it’s pretty clear I have an obsession with King Mushroom stand at the 32nd Street Farmer Market. So much so, that I literally have a mushroom night on my weekly dinner calendar. Not only do they offer the best fungi and portrait-mode photo ops of the farmers market, but this spring they have been killing it with the additional seasonal offerings. The first wave of spring produce, the ramps were amazing, now it’s morels and fiddleheads, the Ina Garten in me just can’t get enough! This weekend I picked up those precious morels and the greenest little fiddle heads I have ever seen, along with my normal haul of oyster and maitake with really no idea what I was going to make with them. Queue the gorgeous weather today and will power to finally force myself on a run through the park and verdant streets of Fells Point. Maybe it’s because I am REALLY not looking forward to sweating my face off from Memorial Day until October, but I was feeling these late spring breezes, window boxes in full bloom, and sun-dappled ivy clad facades. So inspired I was that I decided to get Spring AF and use all my vernal ingredients in a simple pasta dish. I picked up some supple-looking spelt pappardelle from, you guessed it, Impasta Artisans, and figured an herby, leek & shallot studded, brown butter would be the perfect subtle sauce to bring it all together. The only thing that could have made this recipe more “Spring” is if I had added asparagus and scrounged up some ramps, but I showed restraint (for once). I hope this recipe inspires some mushroom hunting and oh-so-seasonal cooking fantasies! Enjoy.
INGREDIENTS
1 cup morels mushroom, whole
2 cups oyster mushrooms, stems trimmed, sliced in halves or thirds
2 cups Maitake, stems trimmed, broken apart
1 cup fiddle head ferns
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 shallot minced
1 leek whites and lightest greens, thinly sliced
5 Tbsp salted butter
⅓ cup olive oil
1 package fresh pappardelle (likely close to a pound)
Preferably a long noodle like tagliatelle or linguini
Dry would work fine too, just plan for the extra cooking time
RECIPE PREPARATION
Heat half the olive oil in a large saute pan over med-high heat. You want to use a big pan so that the mushrooms are not crowded. Add maitake and oysters and cook, undisturbed until they start to brown, ~5 minutes. Flip and give a single stir to make sure none are sticking, and cook for another ~5 minutes until complete browned and starting to crisp. Remove from pan, scraping all the crispy bits out, and set-aside.
Meanwhile, in a small pan melt 3 Tbsp butter, and immediately add the morels. Cook over high heat, letting the butter brown and the mushrooms cook until most of the butter is absorbed. Remove from heat and set aside.
Back to the big pan. Add the rest of the olive oil, garlic powder, white pepper, shallots, leeks, and fiddle heads, cooking over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until the leeks start to brown. Move to the sides of the pan, and place 5 Tbsp butter into the center allowing it to melt and brown while not burning the vegetables.
While shallot mixture cooks, drop your pasta in boiling water for 3 minutes. Once butter is browned, add the reserved oyster and maitake mushrooms, and drop in the cooked pasta, stirring gently to incorporate. Serve immediately, garnishing with the butter fried morels.
