As with most of the pasta dishes here, the idea is that the sauce takes the same time to prepare and cook as the pasta does, so this is a good recipe if you want to knock up something quick (assuming you've got some mushrooms lying around). You can use most kinds of mushrooms, though I wouldn't recommend oyster mushrooms. I wouldn't recommend them for anything really. Once I found some white ones growing in the woods near my house in Scotland and, luckily enough, they had just started sprouting and I picked the smallest and most tender ones. They were delicious, but usually I find oyster mushrooms a bit tough.
I prefer sour cream for this but fresh cream is okay. Mixing it with yoghurt gives it a tang like sour cream and cuts the calories a bit. You could use almost any kind of pasta for this recipe. Assuming 100g of pasta per person, the quantities given here will do three people.
Ingredients
300g of mushrooms
300g pasta
3 cloves of garlic
1 and a half cups of cream, yoghurt or a mix of both
Olive oil
3 or 4 black peppercorns, crushed
A pinch of dried thyme
Salt
Put a pan of salted water on to boil and while your waiting, slice the mushrooms and chop the garlic. Put some olive oil in a pan and, when the water in the other pan starts boiling, switch the heat on high. Add the pasta to the water with a splash of oil and stir gently. The oil in the pan should be hot enough now, so throw in the mushrooms, garlic and a little salt. Stir them round and turn the heat down to medium. Stir the mushrooms occasionally while the pasta cooks and add the pepper and thyme to the mushrooms when the pasta is almost cooked. Don't let the pasta turn to porridge - about twelve minutes will do it. When it's ready, switch the heat off under both pans. Add the cream to the mushrooms and stir it in, then leave it while you drain the pasta. Transfer the well-drained pasta back to the pot and mix in the mushroom sauce. That's it ready.