Pappardelle with Mushrooms and Sage

November 16, 2020 | By Peg Kern

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We love pasta in almost any shape or size, and homemade egg pasta, or “pasta all’uovo,” is one of our favorites, and one you will probably learn during our cooking vacations in Italy. There are versions of this pasta made from Tuscany to Puglia, from Sicily to the Veneto. You can use the same pasta recipe for lasagna noodles, or cut the pasta sheets to make long noodles of different thicknesses. Did you know the thinnest noodles are linguine, and the widest pappardelle? Here is a list of the different noodles you can make, going from thinner to thicker. However, there are many, many regional specialities that go by their own name.

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Common Types of Long Pasta in Italy:

linguine
fettuccine
tagliatelle
pappardelle

We are big fans of pappardelle, the widest of the cuts, but you could easily use any type of noodle – or even boxed pasta – to make this dish. While we like to use a mix of mushrooms, such as portobello, button, shiitake, oyster, and chanterelle, we realize sometimes you might find only one variety. Use the most flavorful type you can find. (And if you have access to fresh porcini – use them!).

Learn about stuffed pastas.

Pappardelle with Mushrooms and Sage

Serves 6
Prep time: 90 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Cook method: Sauté, Boil

Ingredients for the pasta:

3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
4 large eggs

Learn to make homemade ravioli.

Ingredients for the sauce:

1 1/2 lbs mushrooms, roughly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
fresh sage
olive oil
butter
1/4 cup bone broth or water reserved from boiling the pasta
parmigiano or pecorino cheese

Instructions:

1. First make the pasta. Put the well on the counter or on a board in a mound. Make a well in the middle.

2. Break the eggs into the well, add the salt. Beat the eggs in the well, then gradually bring in the flour a little at a time. When the flour is all absorbed, start to knead the dough, adding flour if it is too sticky and a drizzle of water if it is too dry.

3. Knead for 5 minutes or so until the dough is smooth and supple. Wrap it in plastic and refrigerate for about an hour.

4. After the dough has rested, roll it into sheets. You can do this by hand with a rolling pin or using a pasta roller, doing about a quarter of it at a time. Try to keep it in a rectangular shape, and roll to very thin.

5. Let rest for 10 minutes, dust lightly with flour, then fold over a few times and cut to the desired width (for pappardelle, cut about 2 centimeters or 3/4 inch wide). You can also use the fettuccine setting on your pasta roller, but it will make a thinner noodle.

6. Shake the pasta to get rid of the extra flour and to make sure they have room to breathe and don’t stick together. Set aside.

7. For the sauce, heat about 2 Tbsp each of olive oil and butter in a large, very wide skillet. Add the garlic, saué for 30 seconds, then add the mushrooms and season with salt and pepper. Sauté on medium high heat, careful not to overcrowd the pan, about 5-7 minutes. Remove the mushrooms and set aside.

8. Cook the pasta in salted water until al dente. This will only take a few minutes! If you do not have any broth, set aside 1/4 cup of the water before draining the pasta.

9. Melt another Tbsp of butter in the pan, then add the sage. Cook for a few minutes, then add the pasta and mushrooms and toss together in the skillet. (If you do not have a large enough skillet to fit all the pasta, do half, you can mix the other half in before serving). Add enough broth or reserved water to make sure the pasta is not dry.