Fresh Spaghetti with Mushrooms and Pecorino Romano

So once I'd tackled making fresh extruded pasta, I was a little worried about preparing it. There are so many pasta recipes, but few of them specifically call out fresh pasta. I was worried about the pasta sticking, or the noodles getting overcooked, or just going to all that effort then not having something amazing to eat at the end of it.

I'm still getting the hang of how to make the fresh pasta, but I shouldn't have worried. The fresh pasta was easy enough to prepare, and the noodles that had started to stick as they dried became unstuck (mostly) as they were boiled. And the noodles that did stick together were just fine -- nothing like the half-cooked consistency that dried pasta had.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 batch of fresh pasta (or 8oz equivalent dry pasta)
• 12 oz mushrooms
• 1 tablespoon butter 
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese
• parsley to garnish (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. "Don't crowd the mushrooms!" she said. Well, since I was in a bit of a hurry and preparing a few other things, I melted the butter with the olive oil, then just dumped the 12oz of mushrooms into a pan. They were a little crowded but still turned out fine.
2. Cook, stirring occasionally until the mushrooms are fully cooked and the liquid has evaporated and the mushrooms have formed a golden crust on 1 side (15-20 minutes). Remove from pan and set aside. 
3. While the mushrooms are cooking, you can grate the cheese and finely chop some parsley and put some generously salty water on to boil. I find using a simple microplane makes for easy cheese melting later.
4. Wait until the mushrooms are done, then add the fresh pasta to the boiling water. Keep a close eye and taste the pasta after a minute, then every 30 seconds until the pasta is done.
5. Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup pasta water. Drizzle olive oil on the hot pasta and toss to coat. 
6. In the still-hot pot used to boil the pasta or a heated pan, add 1/2 cup of pasta water, noodles, and the grated cheese. Toss to coat the pasta and melt the cheese, adding more pasta water if needed. If the cheese does not melt immediately, you can warm the pan on medium heat until the cheese is melted. 

Serve immediately or keep warm in the oven.

Fresh spaghetti with pecorino romano, mushrooms, and parsley

Buon Apetito!