- Ugh, mushrooms.
- Everybody loves mushrooms, right?
- I like mushrooms. I'll take it.
- Yeah. - Mario, seriously?
What were you thinking with that commercial?
- What? It's supposed to be funny.
- Can someone pass the bread?
- Yeah, but what's with the outfits?
Plumbers wearing white gloves?
- That's right. You gotta have a trademark.
Gotta stand out.
- [Babish] Hey, what's up guys?
Welcome back to "Binging with Babish."
With this week we're taking a look at the mushroom pasta
from "The Super Mario Bros." movie.
No, not the fungus from the one with Bob Hoskins,
the new one in which titular hero vocally
and vehemently despises mushrooms.
So we're gonna start
with a pretty standard mushroom cream sauce
and then see what other forms this fungus can take
in an effort to ensure that Mario eats his mushrooms.
First up, the age-old question,
"Should you wash your mushrooms?"
And the answer is up to you.
Washing discolor the mushrooms and prolong their cook time.
But if you're not in the mood
to go all archeologist with a brush,
it's not gonna be the end of the world.
I have here eight ounces of white button mushrooms
whose stems I am trimming and caps I am thinly slicing.
Then over on the stove top,
I'm going with a two-pot configuration.
I know that one-pot pasta might make you look cool,
but two pots is gonna give you more control
and better results.
I'm starting by heating a tablespoon
each extra virgin olive oil and unsalted butter,
adding the mushrooms once the foaming subsides,
and then cooking them for anywhere
from five to seven minutes
until their moisture is squeezed out and evaporated.
Then I'm adding 1/2 a small minced shallot,
saute for another two to three minutes,
and, depending on your pasta's cook time,
adding it to your pot of salted boiling water.
Then I'm crushing in two cloves of garlic,
giving that a little bit of heat for about 30 seconds.
Deglazing the pan with 1/3 of a cup of dry white wine.
Then adding an optional quarter teaspoon
crushed red pepper flakes,
a not so optional sprinkle of fresh chopped parsley,
and a very not optional 3/4 of a cup of heavy cream.
And back to optionality,
I'm gonna add the zest of one lemon.
I'm bringing this up to a gentle simmer over medium low heat
and allowing it to cook and thicken a little bit
before adding the pasta when it's one to two minutes shy
of your desired degree of doneness.
I'm also gonna add some
of our still boiling pasta cooking water,
a 1/4 cup at a time, as we gently simmer the pasta
for another two to three minutes
until it's reached a state of completion.
Seasoning with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
to taste,
and continuing to add pasta water
if things get too thick or gloopy.
Then I'm killing the heat entirely
and adding about a 1/2 cup
of freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
This is for sure gonna make things gloopy,
so don't be afraid to add more, you guessed it,
pasta cooking water,
which is gonna help thin the sauce as well as emulsify it,
make it glossier, and help it stick to the pasta.
Garnish with more cheese and chopped parsley.
And there you have it, a classic mushroom cream sauce.
Every bit as rich and decadent as it looks,
but not nearly as mushroom-y as it looks.
If you ask me, Mario's being kind of wimp,
especially for a grown man with a mustache.
So next I say that we set out
to make the mushroom-iest pasta possible.
Starting with six ounces
of one of the mushroom-iest mushrooms, shiitakes,
likewise stemmed and thinly sliced,
and four ounces of oyster mushrooms
pretty much just for variety's sake.
I'm not gonna forget to lightly salt my oil this time,
which is just gonna help draw moisture
out of the mushrooms more quickly.
And I'm sauteing these guys likewise
for five to seven minutes until they're lightly browning
and forming a nice fond in the bottom of the pot.
Scoop things to the side, add the shallot,
saute for another three minutes.
Crush in a clove of garlic, another 30 seconds.
And this time,
I'm deglazing with three tablespoons of sherry,
a fortified wine that plays real nice with mushrooms.
Once that's cooked off,
rather than cut the mushrooms with cream,
I'm gonna turn the mushrooms into cream.
Adding 2/3 of the mushrooms to a blender,
along with three tablespoons of unsalted butter,
two tablespoons of white miso,
and about a 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese.
This mixture might be a little bit too thick
to blend on its lonesome,
so don't be afraid to add some of our oldest ally,
pasta cooking water.
Did I mention that I started cooking the pasta?
I started cooking the pasta.
And with its help,
I'm blending the majority of our mushrooms
into a creamy sauce,
which I'm gonna add back to the pan
with the remaining mushrooms,
bring it up to a bare simmer,
and immediately adding the sketti,
which is hopefully within a minute or two of doneness.
We're gonna cook everybody together
for two to three minutes, yada, yada, yada.
Same thing as before, pasta water.
But this time, I'm also gonna have the juice of 1/2 a lemon
two teaspoons of chopped tarragon, more Parmesan, more PCW.
Mixing thoroughly and seasoning to taste with kosher salt
and freshly ground pepper before serving.
And there you have it,
mushroom cream sauce that's actually made of mushrooms.
And shut my mouth,
I'm actually kind of with Mario one this one.
A little bit too mushroom-y.
Plus let's face facts,.
bucatini is hard to eat and is, therefore, dead to me.
So instead,
let's try making maybe my favorite pasta of all time,
Pasta alla Norcina.
To make an approximation of the Norconian sausage,
I'm adding one teaspoon of freshly chopped rosemary
to a 1/2 pound ground pork
in addition to a 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg,
one crushed clove of garlic,
a 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes,
a 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt,
and a 1/4 teaspoon of fennel seeds
that I'm going to lightly process in a mortar and pestle
before adding to the pork.
I'm giving it the old meat melding massage,
both evenly distributing the spices
and making the pork more uniform
so that it's easier to crumble.
Let that sit for 10 minutes.
And lest we forget, there's mushrooms in this recipe.
Eight ounces of cremini mushrooms, which, as you can see,
I washed and thereby discolored,
but it kind of hardly matters
because these guys are getting finally chopped
and then sauteed until browned, so it like cancels out.
First, I'm gonna cook the pork in a little bit of olive oil,
letting it brown a little bit before mashing it up
into bite-sized pieces.
Letting those brown until they're very nearly cooked through
scooping them out and draining them on paper towels.
Then in the remaining pork fat and fond,
we're gonna cook our creminis.
Lightly salting them and cooking until their moisture
has been released and evaporated.
About halfway through, I'm gonna start cooking our pasta.
This time, I'm going with mezzi rigatoni,
or little 1/2 tonis.
Then once the mushrooms are starting to brown,
I'm crushing in another clove of garlic,
letting that saute for about 30 seconds or until fragrant.
Then deglazing the pan,
I'm going back to a 1/3 of a cup of dry white wine,
allowing that to cook off until evaporated.
Then adding about 1/2 my intended parsley.
I like some of the parsley to get heat
so it isn't so vegetal.
Then we're adding our 3/4 of a cup of heavy cream
and our sausage back to the party.
Letting these guys cook together for one to three minutes,
scooping our pasta out of the boiling pan
and into the simmer-er, and, of course,
cutting things with plenty of pasta cooking water,
a 1/4 cup at a time. Keep this at a bare simmer.
Let the pasta finish cooking in the sauce.
Finish with a little bit more parsley.
And this time, 1/2 a cup of Pecorino Romano cheese.
Making sure to cut things
with plenty of the rigatoni boiling medium,
running outta things to call this stuff,
but it bears repeating
because it's as important as it is delicious.
Speaking of which, it's time to plate up.
More freshly grated cheese,
more freshly deconstructed parsley.
And there you have it, far and away,
one of my favorite pastas, Pasta alla Norcina.
It might just seem like another variation
of the previous two, and it kind of is.
But the herb-y, spicy sausage
is really what makes this dish.
Plus the mushrooms are cut into little tiny pieces.
No, pick a nose out, Mario.
(upbeat music)