Pasta & Morels - a perfect pairing
Decadent ribbons of herb printed pasta, topped with morels. A spring feast.
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Every spring dear friends of ours yard fills with morels. They make their way up in their garden beds, right there in the front lawn, and even push their way through sidewalk cracks. It is a wonder to behold. Each season they have kindly shared from their bounty to our absolute delight. This year I felt overwhelmed with what to make, and frankly too focused on dishes with copious amounts of cheese, and reached out to the amazing Substack community to help me think through ideas.
The responses blew me away. From fond memories of how
’s grandmother would prepare them gently coated in cracker crumbs and fried to a crispy morel perfection, to the brilliant idea from to treat morels as carnitas and enjoying them in tacos, I was in awe of how inspiring this community is. I felt like I was invited into your kitchens to sauté and cook up morels together, and I absolutely loved it.After a day of taking in ideas, I honed into one dish I simply cannot get enough of – pasta. Deeply inspired by
Tagliatelle with Morel Mushrooms, I did my own riff on a homemade noodle creation. Morels have such a short shelf life I ended up making this on a Wednesday night after a long day in the office, and it was truly the midweek decadence we needed.
Using
Egg Pasta Dough recipe from her book Pasta Every Day, I rolled it out as thin as I could on my pasta machine, pressing in fresh chervil from the garden to add beautiful patterns to the noodles in the finished dish. Once I had the large noodle sheets, I cut them into thick, wide noodles–about 1 to 2 inches wide–to highlight the pattern and add drama to the dish. The rustic nature of the hand cut noodles mimics the foraged mushrooms, giving the dish an earthy, organic feel.
The chervil addition came from what was fresh in my herb garden. It is something I am growing for the first time this year, and I love the light, sweet parsley and licorice flavor–it added freshness and balance to the buttery, rich dish.
Served alongside fresh garden asparagus, this dish was one I will dream about the rest of the year.
shared how lovely morels and asparagus pair together, and I have to say a bite of morel with a bite of asparagus feels like the ultimate expression of spring.
Chervil Pasta & Morels
Serves 2
6 Morels, small to medium, gently cleaned, cut in half or quarters
4 Tbs. of Butter
2 Garlic Cloves
A small bunch of Chervil or Italian Flat Leaf Parsley, tough stems removed
Prepare your dough according to the recipe and set up your pasta machine.
Cut your dough into three pieces, rolling out each piece to the second to the thinnest setting.
Once it is rolled out to the second to the thinnest setting, lay your noodle out onto a surface and fold it in half on itself lengthwise. Unfold and take note of where the halfway point is of the noodle.
Arrange Chervil or Parsley sprigs over one half, leaving space between each. I layered in 2-3 sprigs per noodle.
Take the other half of the noodle and lay it over the fresh herbs, lining up the two halves to now create one shorter noodle. Press the two halves together with the herbs between by rubbing and pressing the dough with your hands or a rolling pin evenly over the surface.
Run your herbed pasta back through the pasta press on the second to the thinnest setting, then once more on the thinnest setting. Using a knife or pizza cutter, cut your noodles 1-2 inches wide. Layer the noodles on a baking sheet dusted with semolina flour to keep the noodles from sticking.
Repeat steps 1-6 with the other two sections of dough.
Once your noodles are made, place a large pot of well-salted water over high heat to bring to a boil.
On a second burner, heat a non-stick or cast iron pan over medium-high heat. Add the butter until melted, then the morels.
Cook the morels until they start to get crispy and golden in places, about 4 -5 minutes. Season with salt to taste.
Add the garlic. Cook until the garlic is fragrant, then mellows slightly, about one minute.
Remove the morels from the pan into a bowl, and lower the heat of the pan to low.
The next part will happen quickly, so be ready for each step–Add your pasta to the boiling water - these noodles are super thin, so stir very delicately, and cook them for just 2 minutes, 3 at most. Before straining, scoop out 1 cup of pasta water, and then strain your noodles.
Add half the pasta water to the skillet of morel butter, whisking as you add it. Bring the heat up to medium and add your pasta, gently shaking the pan to carefully coat your noodles. Using a chopstick or small wooden spoon, gently prod and stir the noodles to coat them in the butter. Season with salt to taste.
Remove pan from the heat and top with morels and any accumulated juices. Top with a scatter if Chervil or Parsley, and enjoy with a side of roasted asparagus.
Gorgeous words, gorgeous photos. I love the idea of the "ultimate expression of spring!" What I would do to get some fresh morels here...!
This is so elegant. Thank you for sharing!