creamy mushrooms with pasta

It’s the day before Christmas, which means, in our household, that I’m playing Christmas music, minus the actual Christmas celebration. But it’s still Hannukah, which means we get to combine our love of fried foods with the annual tradition of Chinese food. But more on that later. I’ve something up my sleeve for you tomorrow.

Today I want to talk to you about pasta.

No doubt, most of your houses today are buzzing with the holiday anticipation. The presents are wrapped, the tree sparkles and perfumes the air, the oven will put in a full day’s work. There’s coffee in the pot and possibly a cake or two to go with the morning breakfast. Some of you, I suspect, are still wearing fluffy bathrobes, as you putter around the kitchen getting things organized. It’s actually my favorite time of day, or any holiday, that anticipatory shuffle. Or maybe you’re cool as a cucumber and are choosing to read the paper at the counter. But whatever your morning, I know, that it shimmers with anticipation. Even in our house, without a Christmas to celebrate, it feels somehow festive, soothing, still.

I’ve gotten almost no emails in the last twenty-four hours. The quiet is even in the interwebs. I love it so. Love the quiet of this morning. Love the light pouring into the window. Love the clean, tidy living room with stacks of books and magazines at my side. We ran out of milk and coffee creamer this morning and I, being up early as usual, just added a dollop of heavy cream instead. And you know what – it’s delicious, decadent, and just a touch indulgent. I’m still in my fluffy bathrobe and I plan on staying in one for quite awhile this morning. We’re going to Boston early next week, so there’ll be no trips to the farmers’ market this weekend (or are they taking a break for Christmas? I hope they are!). It’s just us and the contents of our fridge. I anticipate some “rescue” soups happening very very soon.

But back to pasta. It’s a bit of a cheat, this recipe. I’ve been making this mushroom medley for years. It’s an old throwback to our family recipe where we used a mixture of porcinis (fresh, in the summer) and chanterelles (dirt cheap in the old USSR). My grandmother spooned them over potato patties (a recipe I must share with you soon!) and baked them into a flaky crust as hand pies. Of course, we didn’t use white wine or thyme in Russia – that’s my addition to our family recipe. But I like it a little better even. For one, I can’t find fresh porcinis this time of year; and furthermore trying to pay for those and chanterelles, well – I might have to skip a rent payment to do that.

Recently, I did a post for the Cooking Channel Devour blog where I put these mushrooms on buttered challah bread. Then I did it with brioche, which was even better because, to me, butter will always trump oil. And then, I remembered that my grandmother, desperate to get me and my cousin to eat something, anything, would make us these mushrooms and stir them into elbow macaroni (which oddly enough, we did have in Russia). And my cousin, who had even a pickier appetite than me, and I would eat this pasta without so much as taking a breath in between the bites.

I realize this isn’t a holiday cookie, or an edible gift (speaking of which here they are all organized for you. Crafty, no?). It’s a humble, less-than-exciting pasta dish that I’m sharing with you on the day before Christmas. When you probably have more glamorous things to eat like Christmas ham, or goose, or maybe a crown roast. Or maybe, if you’re of the Hannukah persuasion, you’re still high on the latkes theme. But maybe after the holiday, if you’re hankering for a kind of comforting dish that you can pull together in a snap, I think this might just do the trick.

In the meantime, I hope your Hannukas are beautifully lit and deeply fried, and your Chritmases are merry, bright, and full of sugarplum sweetness.