Duck Egg Fettuccine with Oyster Mushrooms and Herbs (Plus the Mushroom Kit Winner!)

As promised, today is the day to announce the winner of the Back to the Roots Oyster Mushroom Giveaway. In a few weeks, our lucky winner is going to be sporting some serious Fungus Among Us action, just like this:

But first, an idea for what you can do once you harvest your can’t-get-fresher-than-this mushrooms.

Duck Egg Fettuccine with Oyster Mushrooms and Spring Herbs.

(adapted from Basic Pasta Dough, page 196, Molto Italiano, by Mario Batali)

3. Knead the dough with the palms of your hands until it really comes together into a cohesive mass. Flour your board to prevent sticking and knead the dough for an additional ten minutes or so, until the dough feels elastic and smooth.

4. Set the dough aside to rest, covered with plastic wrap, for 30 minutes to an hour at room temperature.

5. Cut the dough into quarters and, using a pasta roller (I use an attachment to a KitchenAid stand mixer), roll your dough out to a thin, even thickness. I won’t go into great detail on how to roll out pasta since people have different machines and different techniques. The best tip I have is to start at the largest setting and work the dough down in thickness gradually. Take a few runs through at each setting. There’s no rush. Also, just practice when a fancy dinner isn’t on the line. This recipe is eggs and flour – cheap stuff. Don’t stress it. If you screw up a piece of pasta, just fold it in on itself a few times, pat it flat, dust it with flour, and start over. Once you get the hang of it, it’ll seem easy. If my 7 year old can handle rolling out pasta dough, you can.

6. Once your dough is at the right thickness (we stop one setting short from the thinnest setting on our Kitchen Aid attachment), cut the pasta sheets into fettuccine ribbons. If you don’t have a fettuccine cutter attachment, you can gently stack 8″ long sections of fresh pasta and cut them into 3/4″ wide strips with a sharp chefs knife. Unfold the pasta immediately and gently separate the strips. Hey, you just made pappardelle! That’ll work too.

Hang your fettuccine or pappardelle to dry if you like. We hung ours overnight, but you could use it immediately.

3. Cook the pasta in the boiling water until al dente, about 1-5 minutes, depending on how thin you rolled your pasta and if you allowed it to dry before using it. Better to have it less done that more done, so err on the side of firm. Drain the pasta, reserving about 1/2 cup of the cooking water, and add the pasta to the mushrooms.

4. Add in the heavy cream, return the heat to medium-high, stir and cook until the cream has thickened and coated the pasta, about 1 minute. You want a light, thin coating around the pasta, not a feeling of lots of sauce. If the sauce seems dry, you can add in a bit of the reserved cooking liquid.

5. Stir in the chives and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Thanks to everyone who entered to win! As a reminder, beyond the review kit I was sent, I haven’t been compensated in any way for my review or support of the Back To The Roots Mushroom Kit, but I do think it’s a great product and was a lot of fun to use.

The kit is an absolutely fantastic gift or summer activity for children who are into science or nature. My daughter’s class loved the opportunity to see the mushrooms grow, and I am already planning on picking one up as a gift for a friend who’s turning 8 this summer.

If you didn’t win and you want to get one of these kits for yourself, the 10% off code is still good at the Back To The Roots store: Mushrooms4me10. If you buy one, please take advantage of their offer to send a free kit out to an elementary school classroom when you post a picture of your grown kit on their Facebook page. BTTR is putting their money where their mouth is when it comes to supporting education – let’s help them help kids learn some science.

Thanks again to everyone who entered. Happy fungi discoveri!