Lemony Mushroom Pasta with creamy Coconut Sauce & walnuts

my new go-t0

I never really understood people’s obsession with pasta - as a kid, when coming home from school and spaghetti were on the table, I secretively dreamed about my mother’s cinnamony spelt & apple pancakes. But gladly, things have changed: instead of viewing pasta as a boring, rather tasteless carb, I now appreciate it’s flavour-carrying properties that reach so much further than a supermarket shelf tomato sauce. I’m happy to say that in recent years, pasta grew on me as I discovered the many flavours it can be paired with: such as mushrooms and lemon!

Servings: 2

Total time: 45 min

For this dish

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1/2 tsp rosemary (dried or fresh), chopped

500g mushrooms, cleaned and sliced

1 organic lemon, zested and juiced

1 cup full fat coconut milk

1/2 cup walnuts, roasted and roughly chopped

fresh basil, chopped

salt and pepper to taste

2 portions of organic wholewheat semolina linguine

Instructions

1. Put a large frying pan to medium heat, add in the olive oil and fry the garlic until fragrant. Add in the rosemary and give it a good stir, then place the sliced mushrooms in the pan and fry until they’re soft, reduced in size and slightly browned (we don’t want them to be soggy, but have a bit of a coloured crust. The trick here is to not stir them too much, but allow for the bottom layer of mushrooms to brown, then stir them to give their friends a go).

2. Once the mushrooms are cooked, add in the lemon juice as well as half of the lemon zest. At this point, you can also pour in the coconut milk - season the mixture with salt and pepper to your liking - make sure to be generous with the pepper! Let the mushrooms and coconut sauce get a little bubbly and allow it to thicken by simmering for about 10 - 15 minutes on medium-high heat.

3. In the meantime, you can prepare the pasta according to the package instructions. Al dente is what we want to go for. (Once the pasta is cooked, I drain it, place it back in the pot and add a bit of olive oil, then give it a good stir).

4. Add the mushroom coconut sauce to the pot with pasta, make everything come together by stirring it well, then add another bit of salt and pepper, some fresh lemon zest, chopped basil and the roasted walnuts.

5. Serve the pasta while hot and steamy and enjoy what you’ve created!