baked pasta with mushrooms, white wine and cream

Having already handcrafted a pot noodle for lunch this week, today I lurch to the other extreme picking up a sandwich in Pret. This is particularly bad/lazy as Strutton Ground’s fine street food is only a 5 minute stroll away, and is not only vastly cheaper, it’s also amazingly tasty. However, having spotted a cheese and tuna toastie in the window – God’s own sandwich – there was no turning back.

I should’ve known it would’ve been a disappointment. How can something full of bold flavours like capers, strong cheese and tuna taste so bland and insipid? I’m going to have to buy a Breville now, it’s the only way.

Further disgruntlement lurks when I get home when Ana discovers an unexpected downside to last night’s efficient using up of random ingredients whilst making an experimental baked mushroom pasta: It turns out those mushrooms were actually quite key. As was the apple juice I glugged to quench my post-run thirst.

It’s not a total disaster mind, it’s just not quite as mushroomy as recommended, and it’s also lacking the rich, creamy sauce. I imagine both elements would make this even more delicious than Ana had already made it.

I’m wary of saying ‘next time I won’t use up as many random-looking ingredients as I can find in the fridge’ because I worry I’ll just be binning loads of rotting food again, so let’s say I’ll commit to reading the ingredients before I go left-over crazed.

sources
baked pasta with mushrooms, white wine and cream - rebecca smith, delicious, January 2014, p86