Pasta with Mushrooms and Spinach

This pasta with mushrooms and spinach in a deliciously creamy white wine sauce is the perfect date night dinner! And no date night is complete without a nice glass of wine. My choice of wine usually depends on what I'm eating so for this date night dinner it has to be a glass of my favourite, Chablis.

Course Dinner

Cuisine Pasta

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 30

Total Time 40

Servings

Calories 671kcal

Author Michelle Alston

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 Banana Shallots / Echalion shallots (90g) peeled then finely chopped (about ¾ of a cup when chopped)
1 tablespoon butter
7.5 oz brown / chestnut mushrooms (210g) wiped clean then sliced
2 cloves of garlic minced
½ cup white wine (115ml)
A pinch of grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon cracked black pepper
¼ teaspoon sea salt
1 cup of heavy whipping cream / double cream (230ml)
10 sun dried tomatoes (from the deli or from a jar) sliced.
4 cups young leaf spinach (100g)
2 tablespoon pine nuts toasted
2 tablespoon chopped flat leaf parsley plus more for a garnish if you want
11.5 oz linguine (330g)
⅕ cup of parmesan* (20g) *I use a vegetarian parmesan cheese, plus more for serving

Instructions

Toast the pine nuts in a dry pan until golden brown then remove from the pan and set aside until ready to use.
Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil then add the pasta and cook according to the packet instructions.
While the pasta is cooking heat 1 tablespoon of oil and ½ tablespoon of butter in a sauté pan. Add the chopped shallots and cook over a low to medium heat until they are soft, about 10 minutes. They should be translucent, not brown.
Add the mushrooms, ¼ teaspoon each of salt and cracked black pepper, the garlic and another half tablespoon of butter to the pan and cook the mushrooms for about 5 minutes. Stir the mushrooms occasionally.
Turn up the heat then add the wine, leave the wine to bubble away at a fast simmer until it reduces. You should reduce quite a bit, by at least a third.
Now stir in the sun dried tomatoes to the pan.
Turn down the heat to low then slowly pour in the cream. Add the grated nutmeg and the grated cheese then stir everything together.
Drop the spinach into the pan now and stir, it should wilt quite quickly.
Once wilted, slowly pour ½ a cup of water from the pasta into the sauce, stirring continuously.
Once the pasta is cooked, drain it the pour it into the sauce. Add the chopped parsley and pine nuts and toss.
Serve immediately with more grated cheese, some cracked black pepper and a nice glass of wine.

Notes

Nutritional Information: Nutritional information is approximate and is calculated using an online nutrition tool. It is based on a serving of 4.
Serving Size: The quantities listed are enough to feed 4 adults if you wish to change the serving size you can use the slider tool in the recipe card to adjust the servings.
Shallots: If you can't find shallots a medium white onion will work well instead.
Cream: Regular or single cream works well too if you can't get heavy/double cream.
Sun-dried tomatoes: To get rid of some of the oil in the sun-dried tomatoes, place them flat on a chopping board and scrape them with the back of a knife before you chop them. This will get rid of a lot of oil.
Patsa: I used linguine but spaghetti or tagliatelle works well too.
Spinach: Young leaf spinach is perfect in this but if you can't get your hands on that regular spinach works perfectly.
Wine: For sauces like this I always use wine that's good enough to drink. In this case, I used the Chablis listed.
Cheese: I use vegetarian parmesan cheese, the measurement is just under ¼ cup hence the measurement listed is ⅕.
Butter: I use salted real butter, always.
Storing and Freezing: This dish is best made fresh and served immediately. However, if you have leftovers you can store this dish in the fridge once cooled. It should only be kept for a day or two due to the cream. You can reheat this easily on the hob, just add it to a pan and slowly bring it up to a piping hot heat. I do not recommend freezing this dish due to the cream and the spinach.
Alcohol: The alcohol in the sauce may very likely not cook out so I do not recommend this recipe for children or those avoiding alcohol.

Nutrition