Half an Hour Vegetarian Linguini in Creamy Mushroom Sauce

I was not planning on cooking so many quick meals in a row. After all it was the weekend. Weekends usually equal a quick lunch and an elaborate dinner. But I totally forgot that the girls were performing this weekend and would be out of the house from 1 to 4.30 pm. This meant that us adults got some time together. And what a wonderful weekend it turned out to be with bright sunshine and warm air. On Saturday we visited a flea market and picked up some CD's, puzzles and books for the kids. Then we had a huge ice-cream and went shopping. But all this meant that there was only half an hour to get the dinner on the table by 5:30 pm! Good for you :)

So this was Saturday's dish. One I have not made for ages because the spaghetti is so cheap here and the linguini, which is called Tagliatelle here (and might be different), is so expensive (comparatively). If pasta is not readily available or extremely expensive then stay tuned and I'll post my favourite pasta recipe. It's easy to make but it increases the time needed to make this dish exponentially.

Serves 4 (if you have a hungry lot you might want to serve a quick green salad with it); Preparation time 30 mins.

Ingredients:

250 g	Linguini
2 tbsp.	Butter
1 small/medium	Onion
2 large cloves	Garlic
500 g	Mushrooms
1	Red bell pepper
2 tbsp.	White wine
250 ml	Whipping cream
1/2 cup	Grated parmesan
	Salt & Pepper

Method: 

I first put a large pot of water on the stove to boil. If you want to speed up the process put a little bit of water in the pot on the stove and while this is heating up boil the rest of the water in a kettle. Once the water boils add it to the pot. I use this method when I'm in a real hurry!

After putting the water to boil I peeled the onion and sliced it and then peeled and finely chopped the garlic. 

Then I washed the mushrooms and sliced them rather thin (<1 cm). 

For the red pepper I used some frozen char broiled peppers, but you can use a regular red pepper instead or leave it out altogether. If you are using fresh pepper now is the time to wash and cut it. Next I took a large wok and melted the butter on medium heat. Once it was melted I put in the onion and the garlic and fried it for about 1 minute. Then I added the mushrooms (add the bell pepper if you are using a fresh one) and fried them until they were fully cooked. 

At some point during all this the water for the pasta boiled and I threw the Linguini into the boiling water. I then brought the water back to boiling point, stirred the noodles so that they didn't stick to each other and then set the timer according to the recommendations on the packet. I always use a timer with pasta. Hubby does not like over cooked pasta it has to be just right! 

Once the mushrooms were cooked I added the char broiled peppers and increased the heat to high. Then I added the wine. I actually don't like alcohol and that's why I increased the temperature to high. This way the alcohol will all burn off leaving just the taste of the white wine. I'm always careful not to inhale the fumes otherwise I would be drunk before dinner! 

Once the alcohol has evaporated the rest of the ingredients are added. The sauce is then done and if you are lucky your pasta will be done too. 

I always drain my pasta and wash it under cold water so that it doesn't stick together. Then I added it to the sauce and mixed it all up, tasting for salt and pepper and adding accordingly.

And I forgot to say that I happened to have spinach tagliatelle so that's why my noodles are green. 

Serve immediately! Does not reheat well.