Thursday 18 July 2013

Goat's cheese portobello with creamy pasta


I assure you, this might look difficult to make but it's absolutely not. It's not very low-fat but oh so delicious. It's also a dish you can really adjust to your own tastes. Leave some ingredients out if you want, or add some! This dish combines all of my fasvourite ingredients together: tomatoes, onions, mushrooms and goat's cheese. It's easy to make but looks fancy enough to serve to guests as well.


I made this recipe for four people, and they all seemed to really enjoy it. The key ingredient here is the portobello mushroom. Most supermarkets in my country did not seem to sell these. When I finally stumbled upon them after searching for them for months I was in mushroom heaven. They're very delicious and nice to fill up and throw in the oven.

That is also what you need to start with here. Grab your portobello mushroom(s) and make sure all dirt is removed. Do not and I repeat DO NOT rinse these mushrooms with water. They will soak up the water and that's not what we want. Put the mushrooms on a tray. Make sure you boil some water for your pasta and preheat the oven (about 200 C/400 F).

Now we're going to make the mushroom filling. Grab whatever goat's cheese you prefer, I added goat's cheese with honey. Mash it in the bowl a little bit. This could also go well with other soft cheeses such as roquefort or some other nice blue cheese. Then, chop up a small onion (I used a Spanish onion) and throw it into the mix as well. Add a diced tomato and dice up some sundried tomatoes. Add some pine nuts and a chopped up garlic clove. Next, add some olive oil and some parsley. Many people dislike parsley and I'm sure basil could have worked too. Remember to just adjust the recipe to your preferences. Finally, you should add some peper and a few tablespoons of cream to make the mixture a bit more moist and to bind the ingredients together. Not to mention, cream is simply delicious.

Back to the mushrooms. Brush a little bit of olive oil on them and then put the mixture in them with a spoon. Then grill the mushrooms in a preheated oven. They should be ready in about 10-15 minutes depending on the oven. Make sure to check up on them often.

Now it's time to boil some of your favourite pasta. I chose seashells here because I think they look a little bit more exciting than just penne of spaghetti. Make sure to add some salt to the water too.

Now, in a different pan cook up some cream and add a little bit of the leftover goat's cheese. I also added some extra diced tomatoes and some salt and pepper. This mixture should be ready within 4 minutes. When the pasta is ready, stir it through the sauce. You don't need much sauce as the mushrooms have a lot of flavour already.

When your mushrooms are ready, take them out of the oven. Now grab your plates and serve the pasta on each plate with a mushroom on top. I added some extra chives, but that is completely optional. I hope you'll enjoy this as much as I did!


Ingredient list (serves 4):

- 4 portobello mushrooms
- 200 gram goat's cheese for mushroom filling + 100 gram for the sauce
- about 250 ml of cream (about 70 for the mushroom filling, the rest for the sauce)
- 2 handuls of pine nuts
- 2 large tomatoes
- about 4 sundried tomatoes
- small onion
- 1 garlic clove
- some parsley
- olive oil
- salt
- pepper
- seashell pasta
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