Shitake Pasta

Every Saturday morning I take a short walk accross the street to the Tower Grove Farmers' Market and drop a tenner on a pick your own bag of Ozark Forest Shitake Mushrooms.  I first had these at the deeply missed Riddles Penultimate Wine Bar, who served local food way before it was the hip thing to do.  I fell very much in love with these mushrooms, and craved them fortnightly.  But the only way to get them was at restaurants, and what I really wanted was to experiment with them on my own.  Now, thanks to the ultra convenience of the farmers' market, I can do just that!  I've decided this is THE best way to prepare these mushrooms.  Too many ingredients just distracts you from the beautiful natural flavour of these amazing fungi.

Ingredients: 

• Approximately 10 medium sized shitake mushrooms sliced into thin strips
• 3-5 cloves of garlic minced
• 1/4 lb. whole wheat fettucini noodles boiled al dente
• 2 T butter (or 1 butter 1 olive oil)
• parmesan to taste
• truffle oil to taste
• salt

Heat the butter until bubbly and add garlic and mushroom strips.  Stir to get as many as possible in contact with the butter.  Continue to saute and stir until mushrooms release their water and it cooks off.  At this point, add a generous pinch of kosher salt and saute for about 1 minute.  Plate noodles and top with mushrooms.  Sprinkle parmesan and drizzle truffle oil over the top to taste.  So simply and an express ticket to umami city.