I am a serial orderer. These days I instantly grab my phone whenever I need something. My Amazon and Instacart carts always have stuff in them. That’s why I’m a bit surprised that I didn’t have to order the pasta for this Tagliatelle with Mushrooms. I ventured out a few weeks ago and found myself in HomeGoods. I found tons of equipment and props, and I did something I have never done before—I bought food.
Their gourmet section had some great prices on hard-to-find shapes like tagliatelle. At that moment I didn’t have a plan for it, but I knew Rice & Pasta Pinterest board would have something for me. I settled on this Tagliatelle with Mushrooms, Sage Butter & Toasted Hazelnuts. I know, long name, but it looks and sounds delish and a bit posh. Let’s find out if it is!
This irresistible tagliatelle with mushrooms is made with wild mushrooms sautéed in sage butter and finished with chopped toasted hazelnuts.
The Ingredients
I got very lucky when I found a bag of tagliatelle nests on my surprise shopping trip. It was $4.99 for a 17.6-ounce bag of Ciao Italia Egg Tagliatelle. That was a touch over the 1 pound (16 ounces) listed in this recipe, but not by much.
I’m still recovering from my refrigerator breakdown a few weeks ago, so I had to buy everything but the salt and pepper. My regular store had most everything I needed including sliced wild mushrooms (a mix of shiitake, oyster, and crimini mushrooms). Exactly what this recipe suggests!
The only thing I couldn’t find was hazelnuts. That was unusual, but Amazon saved me (again). I was able to add a bag of chopped hazelnuts to an order I was about to make. Whew! Buying them chopped and skinned saved me a bit of work.
The Process
I knew going in I would have to modify Step 1, toasting the hazelnuts. Since I bought skinned and chopped raw hazelnuts, I had to decide how to toast them. I could have done it in the oven, but why fire it up for such a small thing? I decided to toast them in a small skillet since I had to use the stove anyway. Otherwise, this would have been a one-pot recipe.
While the hazelnuts toasted, I started boiling the water for the pasta in my 5.5-quart Dutch oven. It was just big enough to add all the tagliatelle nests, but just barely. That was a lot of pasta!
Once the pasta was cooked and drained, I moved on to frying the sage leaves. I have never done this before and wasn’t sure how to flip them. My trusty tongs came to my rescue, but it was a little awkward at times since the leaves were so small and thin. I have a feeling my sage ended up frying a little longer than 30 seconds per side, but it ended up nice and crispy.
The next component of this recipe was the wild mushrooms. They cooked up nicely in the sage-scented brown butter. Once they were seasoned it was time to assemble my tagliatelle with mushrooms.
I’m glad I used a big pot because it allowed me to really mix everything without making a huge mess. My tongs helped with this part too. I have found that they are excellent for mixing noodles.
Despite my best efforts, I didn’t quite get a “silky” sauce. I didn’t think that extra 1.6 ounces of pasta would make much of a difference, but maybe it did. Or maybe the mushrooms absorbed all the butter? Adding some extra water and grated parmesan helped, but I still wouldn’t describe my sauce as silky. It was tasty though!
Timing
This recipe lists 20 minutes to prep, 10 minutes to cook, and 30 minutes total. I came in at the same total time:
- 15 minutes to prep and cook the pasta
- 15 minutes to cook, assemble, and garnish
- 30 minutes total
And I do want to mention that I did use the pasta cooking time (8 minutes) for prepping the remaining ingredients.
