Prepare Mushrooms and Marinara Pasta

 
After the holidays do you crave something other than turkey, ham or mashed potatoes?
How about some Italian food?  Maybe pasta with an easy-to-make marinara sauce topped with piled high mushrooms cooked in butter and wine?

If so, I have just the recipe for you.  It’s meatless but you would hardly know it with the mushroom topping.
And if you’re not a fan of mushrooms they can easily be left out.
Before we check out the recipe, here are some of my random after-the-Holidays inside thoughts.  Do any of them sound familiar to you?

• Why is it that after the Christmas decorations are packed away high in the rafters, I always find an ornament that I forgot to pack?
• I can’t listen to “Baby It’s Cold Outside” for at least another 10 months.
• Why is it that no one ever eats the leftover candy canes?
• How come just when I think I’ve vacuumed up the last pine needle, I find 10 more in random places?
• Why don’t the Christmas decorations fit back into the same plastic bins that they came out of?
• What am I going to do with all of that leftover unmade stuffing mix?
• I think I can hear ornament hooks being sucked up as I’m vacuuming the carpet.
• I can’t eat another bite of turkey.
• Is that can of pumpkin in my pantry from this year or last year?
• Remind me why I bought all of that marked down Christmas candy?
• I’m craving Italian food….something with a lot of mushrooms cooked in butter and wine.

Happy New Year!
Let’s check out the ingredients.

Fresh mushrooms, butter, white wine, salt, pepper, olive oil, onion, green bell pepper, celery, garlic, red wine, tomato sauce, dried oregano leaves, dried basil leaves Worcestershire sauce, and angel hair or spaghetti pasta.
Here’s how to make it.
For the Mushrooms:

Slice the mushrooms.

Heat a large skillet on medium heat and add the butter.

Once the butter is melted add the mushrooms…

…salt…

…and pepper.

Stir together.  Continue to stir and cook the mushrooms for about another 4 minutes.

Add the wine and stir as the wine reduces.

Once the wine has reduced by about half, transfer the mushrooms to a bowl and set aside.
For the Marinara Sauce:

First,

chop…

…the…

…veggies.

Heat a medium size pot on medium heat and add the olive oil,

onion, bell pepper, celery and garlic.

Stir as the veggies cook.

Continue to cook the veggies for about 8 minutes and then add the wine.

Stir as the veggies cook for another 5 minutes.

Add the tomato sauce,

water,

oregano,

basil,

salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and stir together.

Continue to stir as the sauce simmers for another 20 to 30 minutes.
For the Pasta:

While the sauce is simmering, in a medium size pot, bring water to a boil…

…and add salt.

Add the pasta and…

…cook until al dente.  Drain the pasta and transfer it to serving dishes.

Top with sauce and…

…then top the sauce with mushrooms.

Garnish with grated parmesan cheese and serve while hot.

If you really want to get fancy, add garlic bread as a side dish.

enjoy.

Mushrooms and Marinara Pasta

Yield: Serves 3
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

For the Mushrooms:
5 cups sliced fresh mushroom (about 15 medium to large mushrooms)
3 tablespoons butter
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup white wine
For the Marinara Sauce:
3 teaspoons olive oil
½ cup chopped onion
½ cup chopped green bell pepper
½ cup chopped celery
3 large cloves garlic, chopped
½ cup wine (red or white wine)
2 cans tomato sauce (15 ounce cans)
1 empty can of tomato sauce filled with water
1 tablespoon dried oregano leaves
2 teaspoons dried basil leaves
3 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
½ teaspoon salt (or salt to taste)
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
For the Pasta:
5 dashes salt
3 servings of angel hair or spaghetti pasta
2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese (as garnish)

Directions:

For the Mushrooms: Heat a large skillet on medium heat and add the butter. Once the butter is melted add the mushrooms, salt, and pepper. Stir together. Continue to stir and cook the mushrooms for about another 4 minutes. Add the wine and stir as the wine reduces. Once the wine has reduced by about half, transfer the mushrooms to a bowl and set aside.
For the Marinara Sauce: Heat a medium size pot on medium heat and add the olive oil, onion, bell pepper, celery and garlic. Stir as the veggies cook. Continue to sauté the veggies for about 8 minutes and then add the wine. Stir and as the veggie mixture cooks for another 5 minutes. Add the tomato sauce, water, oregano, basil, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Stir together. Continue to stir as the sauce simmers for another 20 to 30 minutes.
For the Pasta: In a medium size pot, bring water to a boil and add salt. Add the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain the pasta and transfer it to the serving dishes. Top with sauce and then top the sauce with the mushrooms. Garnish with grated parmesan cheese and serve while hot.

 HOW TO MAKE A TASTY CHAPPATI
 
 
 Ingredients

2 cups of wheat flour

1 cup lukewarm water

1 tsp. salt (optional)

1-2 tsp. ghee (optional)

Makes 10-12 chapatis

 Steps

• Pour 2 cups of wheat flour, 1 teaspoon of salt, about 1/2 teaspoon of ghee into a bowl and use your hands to mix the ingredients together thoroughly. Your hands will work better than any mixing tools for this one. You may even sift the flour and salt together before adding the ghee.
• Add ½ a cup of the water to the flour mixture and stir the mixture until it’s soft and supple. Use lukewarm water or a little warm and knead the dough. For best results, mix the flour with your fingers in a circular motion as you add a little bit of water at a time.

Dumping in all of the water at once will make it a bit harder to stir the ingredients. At first, the mixture will feel pretty coarse, but as you add more water, it’ll start to stick together.

• Add the remaining water slowly, stirring until it’s fully combined. Continue to add the water until you’ve added all of it and the dough seems to really come together. Once you feel like you’ve mixed it together pretty thoroughly, you can knead the dough with your knuckles until it’s soft and round until its nice and smooth. Find the perfect balance because if it’s too hard, then the chapati won’t puff up and if it’s too soft, then it’ll be harder to roll it and it won’t puff up, either.
• Place the dough into an oiled bowl and cover it for 25 minutes. Cover the bowl with a cloth. This should give the dough enough time to come together. If you let it sit for much longer than that, then the dough will lose some of its moisture.
• Optionally, when this time has passed, you can moisten your hands with a bit of oil or ghee and knead the dough for another five minutes. It should feel both smooth and supple when you’re done.

• Divide the dough into small balls, and dip them into flour. Each ball’s diameter should be around 3 inches. You should use your hand or a rolling pin to lightly flatten each ball and then drench it with flour on both sides.

               For best results, keep the rest of the balls covered with the cloth while you flatten                  each one and cover it with flour. If you uncover all of them, you will release more                  of their moisture.

• Roll the dough with a rolling pin until the balls resemble thin, round pancakes. Rolling the dough until it is even will make it possible for the entire chapati to puff up.

• Heat a heavy frying pan, or griddle over medium heat and cook each chapati on both sides. Place the chapati on the pan, cook it until it’s a bit less than halfway cooked, and then flip it over and raise the heat a bit. You should keep cooking it until blisters appear on both sides of the bread’s surface. You should rotate each chapati every few seconds to make sure that it gets cooked evenly.

• As you see the chapati filling up with air, you can lightly press down on these spots to encourage the air to pass through the entire chapati. This puffiness will make the chapati nice and soft. Once the chapati has fully puffed up, you can take it off the stove.

Remove the chapati from the heat, and wrap it in a towel until they are all ready to serve and serve according to your preferences. You can also place it in a container that is lined with a towel. Make sure to cover each chapati as soon as it’s cooked for best result