Nothing says “Sunday Family Meal” more than pasta and what better pasta than straight-from-Italia pasta!? Though the marvelous Twitterverse I met Judith Klinger, author of the site Aroma Cucina, Personal Chef and a amazing food lover. She’s based out of New York AND Italy, lucky her right? Well, a few weeks ago, Judith hosted a giveaway and tada! I won quite possibly the BEST giveaway ever: Italian food goodies! Everything from dried pasta, peeled tomatoes, perfect capers, dried mushrooms, amazing olive oil, risotto, lentils, spelt, salts and even saffron! Jealous? I know, I’d be jealous as well!

Grabbing a few ingredients, last Sunday dinner was a lovely pasta made from spaghetti (oddly enough, notice the ends of these noodles were attached, so they were EXTRA long!), re-hydrated mushrooms, a light cream sauce, veggies and smoked pork chops! I had grabbed the saffron to throw in a few threads but ultimately decided I wanted to use it later on. Check out the pictures, throw some ingredients together, have dinner and visit Aroma Cucina and follow her on twitter @JudithKlinger.

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Starting with amazing ingredients make the final product even better!

 

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Fresh produce, Smoked Meat and re-hydrated Mushrooms

 

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Dinner is served!

Smoked Pork and Mushroom Spaghetti
Ingredients
2 smoked pork chops, cut into medium chunks
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1 large carrot, diced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 cup dried mushrooms, re-hydrated (save this water!)

1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup of milk with 1 tablespoon cornstarch (slurry)

1/2 pound of spaghetti
salt and pepper to taste

Method

  1. In a HOT saute pan, throw in the pork and sear, rendering some fat. Add carrots, peppers, celery, garlic and season with salt and pepper. Cook until carrots have lost a little of their crunch, but not all.
  2. Throw pasta in large pot of salted, boiling water. Cook until al dente and remove from water.
  3. Add milk and slurry into saute pan with pork and veggies. Cook over fire until thicken and then add mushroom water (umami!). Reduce heat, simmer so flavors steep into sauce.
  4. Toss pasta with sauce and rehydrated mushrooms, and serve with a sprinkling of freshly cracked pepper and a drizzle of olive oil. Buon Appetito!

Happy Sunday and thanks for stopping by! You can head over to In Good Taste where you’ll see my newest contribution and it’s all about Breakfast Burritos done simple! On your way there, follow the ever lovely foodie and author of the site, @MarisCallahan 

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16 Comments

  1. When do you add the soaked mushrooms? Whole or chopped?
    Thank you

    1. chop them and add at the end when you toss the sauce with pasta!

  2. “In a HOT saute pan, throw in the pork and sear, rendering some fat. Add carrots, peppers, onions, celery, garlic and season with salt and pepper.”

    Not sure how much onion to add because it is not in the ingredients.

    1. My apologies, there are no onions in the recipe. My mistake!

  3. Excited to get caught up on reading blogs, this was one I missed… YAY, Congrats on such an awesome giveaway win! I still have not worked with dried mushrooms, but I must:-). This looks beautiful:-)
    Hugs, Terra

  4. This looks so amazinggg!! Can’t wait to try this 🙂