The header here pretty much says it all.

You know what, that’s actually not true.  But it is a great combo.

The recipe below is for homemade pasta and a mushroom/thyme sauce.  Really, I set out to make some homemade pasta, then didn’t know what to do with it. And so Mark Bittman suggested I try this delicious sauce, and I did (You understand that by “Mark Bittman suggested,” I actually mean I popped open his international cookbook and found a recipe, correct? Well, if not, now you do.).  This pasta sauce is apparently an Italian pasta sauce (rare, I know). I mostly made it because I like mushrooms.

So let’s start with the homemade pasta.  I used Bittman’s pasta recipe too.  It wasn’t my first time making pasta (My first time resulted in the best lasagna ever, if I do say so myself. I feel I can get away with that, as it wasn’t my recipe and I really played the role of the sous chef to my friend Brittany.).

The pasta recipe:

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
3 egg yolks

1.  Combine 1 1/2 cups  of flour and the salt on a counter.  make a well in the middle.  Into this well, break the eggs and yolks.  Beat the eggs with a fork, slowly and gradually incorporating a little of the flour at the time (you can do this with your hands too – it’s kind of fun).  When it becomes too hard to stir with the fork (and if you’re not already using your hands), use your hands. When all the flour has been mixed in, knead the dough, pushing it against th ebaord and folding it repeatedly until it is not at all sticky and is quite stiff. Sprinkle with a little of the reserved flour and clean your hands.  Cover the dough with plastic wrap or a cloth and let it rest for about 30 minutes (or store in the fridge, wrapped in plastic, until you’re ready to roll it out, for up to 24 hours).

2.  The next step in Bittman’s book involves a pasta machine, which I do not have. So I will offer my alternative: Grab a rolling pin and roll out some of the pasta dough as thin as possible.  Make sure you have a very well floured work surface.  Use more flour if it starts to stick. The result should be an long rectangle.  Then take a knife and slice it into whatever shape you want. I made wide fettucini, which basically just involves taking your knife and running it straight along the long edge of the rectangle. Mine was too long, so I then cut that in half.

3.  If you want to eat it right then (which I did), you can just boil some water and drop them in.  Take them out when they are tender, which will happen in about 2 minutes.  If you want to save them for later, then hang them up to dry.

And now for the pasta sauce:

1/2 pound portobello mushrooms (I got a few different kinds of mushrooms to mix it up a bit.)
3 garlic cloves
Leaves from 2 or 3 fresh thyme sprigs
1/2 cup extra version olive oil
Salt and pepper
3 cups peeled, seeded, and chopped tomatoes (canned are fine)
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1.  Cut up mushrooms into small chunks.  Combine in a medium skillet with 1 clove of the garlic, crushed and peeled, the thyme, the olive oil, and some salt and pepper.  Cooke over sufficiently low heat so the mixture bubbles but the mushrooms do not brown.  Continue to cooks, stirring occasionally, until they are quite shrunken in size and appear firm, 30-45 minutes.  Turn off the heat and remove with a slotted spoon, leaving the oil in the skillet.

2.  With the oil left in the pan, turn the heat up to medium and add minced garlic.  Then add the mushroom mixture and then the tomatoes.  Then raise the heat to medium-high.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomato breaks up and becomes saucy, about 15 minutes. I added some white wine too.

3.  When the sauce is finished and delicious, toss it with the homemade pasta and top with some fresh parm (Definitely get the widely grated kind, if you’re not going to grate it yourself. Major style points.).

Tada!