Pasta with mushrooms, artichoke and bottarga
Recipe and photos: Adi Gyuzeleva
Ingredients:
200-250 g pasta
5-6 button mushrooms
1 handful of wild mushrooms (I used pickled ones)
3-4 smaller artichokes, which you can also find pickled, in jars
1 handful of cherry tomatoes
3 cloves of garlic
2-3 hot chili peppers
2 tsp bottarga - this is dried mullet roe, in the form of a powder/spice
Directions:
The recipe is not rocket science and doesn't require much processing or preparation. You pour yourself a glass of wine, put on your favorite music, and approach it with a dancing step and a smile.
You grab the pot with a flourish, take two steps to the left and then to the right, moving your hips of course in "dance like no one is watching" style, pour in water, add coarse salt and put it on the stove.
With the same flourish you take a frying pan and very professionally "toss" it onto the neighboring burner. Turn on the gas or the electricity! Whichever you have! With the ease of a chef from an eight-Michelin-star restaurant, you pour a little of the finest olive oil over it, toss the garlic cloves into the air and, with the sharpest knife and 5 very quick, sharp "Matrix style" moves, slice them into a few pieces! With the same flourish you add the hot chili peppers too, after which make sure you thoroughly disinfect your eyes with your fingers ?
Sauté lightly for a couple of minutes, while belting out those notes you never thought could be hiding inside you. Yes! To that favorite song of yours, which every time you put it on or hear it somewhere, you imagine everything going silent, a beam of light clicking on from above, and you start your performance, followed of course by the greatest applause! Feel it! Did you see yourself? Of course, I'm sure you did.
So, another sip of the good wine. And get started on the button mushrooms - slice them and toss them into the pan for about 4-5 minutes. Slice the artichokes and add them, along with the wild mushrooms (if yours are pickled; if you have fresh ones, add them together with the button mushrooms). Cook and stir for a few more minutes, add a little salt and black pepper. It's already the next song! Wow, you're really letting loose! Just don't forget about the cooking ?
Because in the meantime the water has also heated up - if you use fresh pasta, it will need a few minutes; if it is dry pasta, about 8-10. So it depends on this when you "toss" it into the water. And it should be ready at the same time as the sauce, so that you can add it to the pan for 1-2 minutes to stir everything together evenly.
Before you transfer the pasta into the pan with the other ingredients, cut the cherry tomatoes in half and add them to the pan - the idea is for them to keep their freshness. Stir, and right after them add the pasta. Keep a little of the water in which you cooked the pasta, in case it looks a bit dry. Stir, turn off the burner and add a little olive oil. Serve on plates and only then add the bottarga. If you don't have it, which is very likely, you can add a little mixture of breadcrumbs with a few of your favorite spices. Such a mixture can be prepared in a larger quantity and stored.
The olive oil I use is Extra Virgin olive oil Nobleza del Sur, which I get from Elly's Supreme Taste, and which I also offer at my place, Concept 166. I strongly recommend these olive oils - Spanish, top quality and number one in the world!
Source: https://infoodveritas.com/