Fresh wild morel mushrooms are now in season and it would be so nice to be able to cook with them. Marx Foods is hosting their 2nd Annual Morel Recipe Challenge and a winner will get two pounds of fresh morels! For the challenge, I got a sample of dried morel mushrooms from Marx Foods to develop my recipe. These dried morel mushrooms are excellent as they have a wonderful smoky aroma with terrific earthy flavors. For my morel dish, I wanted to highlight these flavors using the morel mushrooms in three different ways.
First, I turned some of my morel mushrooms into a powder and mixed the powder into the homemade pasta dough. The resulting pasta had a pretty chocolate specked color and was incredibly flavorful even by itself. I topped the pasta with reconstituted morels, sauteed in butter, along with crispy shallots and crunchy fresh baby spinach, cut in thin ribbons, to contrast in texture with tender mushrooms and fettuccine. I made my creamy sauce with the water reserved from reconstituting morels which after reducing and addition of bourbon, added the slightly sweet smoky notes to the dish. The scrumptious flavors of morels were in every bite!
Ingredients: (4 servings)
1 oz dried morel mushrooms
1 1/4 cup flour
2 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons minced shallots
6 tablespoons butter
1 cup of reserved water from reconstituting morels
1/4 cup Bourbon or brandy
1/2 cup cream
Salt, pepper to taste
2/3 cup Baby spinach, cut up in thin ribbons
Directions:
Reserve 18-20 morel mushrooms and grind the rest to a fine powder to make about 3 tablespoons of morel powder. Combine with flour.
Whisk the eggs, salt, and olive oil together in a bowl. Place morel flour mixture in the electric mixer bowl with a dough hook. Pour the egg mixture slowly into the flour as it mixes until the dough forms a ball. Dust the dough ball with a little bit of additional flour if necessary. Using a pasta maker, roll out the dough and cut into fettuccine shape. Boil in the salted water about 3 or 4 minutes. Drain and toss with 1 tablespoon of butter.
Meanwhile, pour hot boiling water over the remaining dried morel mushrooms. Let the mushrooms sit for about 15-20 minutes or until tender. Strain, reserving the water.
In a skillet, melt butter. Add shallots and saute for a minute, then add morels. Saute, stirring frequently, for about 3 minutes or until the mushrooms are tender and the shallots are crispy and golden brown. Season with salt and pepper.
In a saucepan, add 1 cup of reserved water from reconstituting the morels, and bourbon. Reduce by 1/2. Whisk in cream and cook for a few minutes on low heat until the sauce thickens a little. Season with salt and pepper. Strain.
Arrange the morels and spinach ribbons over the fettuccine and pout the cream sauce all over.
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