Pasta Made Easy

Do you like pasta?

I love pasta. My family loves pasta. Plus, it is so simple to prepare, especially for a lousy (and lazy) cook like me. I take great advantage of my kids...the fact that they are not fussy eaters, I could feed them with pasta for lunch or dinner, anytime of the week. Sometimes it could be a 'lavish' seafood marinara pasta for dinner, but most of the time, I serve them fusilli with meatballs in tomato sauce, or a simple plate of angel hair with bolognese sauce.

My boys' favourite pasta meal got to be the chicken and mushroom spaghetti in cream sauce.


I have cooked this pasta dish using various methods. I have to confess that during those early days when I first started cooking for my family, I used canned mushroom soup as sauce ;) It was much later that I learned from some cookbook the proper way to make the white sauce...stir fry butter with some flour, before adding milk or cream. However, I could never achieve a consistent taste. Sometimes the sauce would be way too thick (and 'floury') and most of the time I had problem trying to dissolve the lumps of butter and flour mixture with the milk. If the sauce ended up too thin, I even tried adding cheese slices to thicken it! The best method I have since adopted is to simply cook the sauce using just dairy cream. Depending on what's available, I may use heavy or thickened cream which will yield a very creamy and rich sauce, but I prefer single cream (eg Nestle pouring cream) which is lighter or rather, closer to our Asian palate.



Besides the cream, the other important ingredient for this dish has to be the mushrooms. There is a vast difference between canned mushrooms and fresh button mushrooms. I would only prepare this dish when I have fresh mushrooms. Although I prefer the more earthy and rich flavour of brown button mushrooms, white button mushrooms are just as great. I have also experimented using a mixture of button mushrooms and fresh shiitake.

Most cream sauce recipes would only require salt and pepper as seasoning. I am not sure whether it is due to our Chinese way of cooking, I will also add light soya sauce. I know, it sounds like a weird combination, using soya sauce in a western dish. But I thoroughly enjoy that split seconds of my life, when my kitchen is perfumed with this savory, earthy aroma that is released the moment soya sauce hit the pan of sizzling mushrooms. I am also convinced that soya sauce will bring out the rich flavours or umami of the mushrooms. Yes, mushrooms are capable of delivering plenty of umami, or so called the 5th taste. So that is why, I can omit the chicken in this dish but not the mushrooms.

There is no surprise, with a rather sparse pantry, I am still able to whip up this simple everyday meal thousands of miles away from home. So here it is, my easy pasta recipe from this tiny kitchen in Beijing to yours. Bon Appetite!

Creamy Chicken and Mushroom Spaghetti

Ingredients
(serves 3)

150 ~ 200g spaghetti
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 ~ 3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 chicken thigh, skinless, debone, cut into bite size
200g fresh brown button mushrooms, thickly sliced
1 tablespoon light soya sauce
1 cup (250ml) whipping cream (dairy)
salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a rolling boil (I use only about 1 teaspoon for 3 ~ 4 ltrs of water). Add pasta and cook for about 8 ~ 10 minutes (or according to the directions on the package) until al dente. Stir occasionally to ensure even cooking and to prevent it from sticking. Check occasionally to see if it's done.

2. While the pasta is cooking, heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add garlic, stir fry for a few seconds. Add chicken and stir fry until no longer pink. Add mushrooms to the pan, stir in soya sauce and saute till mushrooms become soft, about 1 ~ 2 mins. Gradually stir in cream. Simmer for about 5 mins, until sauce is slightly thickened and the chicken is cooked through. Season with salt and pepper.

3. By now the pasta should be ready. Drain the pasta. Immediately toss cooked pasta until evenly coated with the chicken and mushroom mixture (add 1 ~ 2 tablespoons of pasta water if the mixture appears too thick). Serve immediately, with a sprinkle of freshly grounded black pepper.