Pasta with Mushrooms for a Girls Night In

Everybody loves pasta. So do I. It's an easy dish and perfect for a casual evening with friends. I almost always serve pasta whenever I have girlfriends over for an evening of laughter, closet inspection, and wine tasting. It's best to prepare the sauce a couple of hours ahead, cook the pasta at the last minute, and have all the time in between to enjoy the company.

Advance preparation turned out to be very helpful last time I had a friend over. We started by opening a bottle of white wine. By the time I put the pasta on the stove the bottle was gone. Meanwhile, we had spent a couple of hours on gossiping, talking fashion, and a review of the latest sale wardrobe trophies; we had had so much fun, that I do not think I would have been able to cook anything from scratch at that moment. Luckily, all that was left for me to do was to cook the pasta, put the mushrooms on top, and sprinkle some freshly shredded Parmesan on it. That much I could still do.

This pasta is light and delicate in taste as sauteed mushrooms are used instead of sauce. It is simple to make and tastes even better if garnished with a freshly chopped sage.

Sauteed Mushrooms Pasta

Ingredients:
1/2 box of Barilla pasta--for this dish I like to use the Gemelli type,
12oz white mushrooms,
12 oz shiitake mushrooms,
12 oz oyster mushrooms,
6-8 sliced garlic cloves,
2 tbsp of chopped flat leaved parsley,
1 tbsp of chopped sage leaves--optional,
1/2 stick of butter
salt and pepper.

Preparation:
1. Wash mushrooms and cut out stems.
2. Cut mushrooms in thin slices.
3. Melt the butter in a frying pan and fry garlic slices in it until gold.
4. Add all the mushrooms and fry until gold.
5. Season with salt and pepper, add the chopped parsley.
6. Cook pasta al dente (for about 8 minutes).
7. Strain the pasta and serve it on a plate, put the mushrooms on top.
8. Shred fresh Parmesan, decorate with sage and serve with red wine.

We finished our evening late after midnight with a meringues fruit dessert, not very low in calories but quite scrumptious. I am going to publish the recipe shortly.

Fig Deal--the Easiest of Ways

I went this morning to my Trader Joe's just to do a little bit of food shopping. I am leaving on vacation soon and my other refrigerator is still broken, so I am quite limited in my seasonal grocery madness. But for the remaining few days I needed some items that my kids cannot live without. Of course I ended up buying more than I needed, but I hope this can also inspire you.

As I walked into the fresh produce section I noticed right away boxes of Californian figs. I love them in their peak. They can be then soft and sweet as honey. When I grabbed a box of them and a pack of prosciutto I knew what I was going to have for lunch. This combination is delicious--crispy salad, salted and smoky ham, and the sweetness of the figs. Anything better on a sunny afternoon?

Besides, did you know that the mineral content of figs closely resembles that of human milk? They are rich in vitamins A, B1, B2, calcium and iron.

Fig and Prosciutto Salad
Serves six

Ingredients:
1 bag (4 oz) of baby Romain lettuce,
1 box (about 10 oz) of California figs,
1 pack (6 oz) of good quality prosciutto,
balsamic vinegar,
extra virgin olive oil,
salt and pepper.

Preparation:
1. Arrange lettuce on the plate, sprinkle with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper,
2. Put the prosciutto slices on top.
3. Cut three figs and arrange them next to the prosciutto.

Enjoy with a piece of fresh baguette.

Useful tip:
This salad can be used as a started before any dinner.

Blackberry Fruit Cake--Upside Down

Rhubarb seems to have been one of the recent food fads. Several well-known culinary blogs featured desserts made with rhubarb and some of them, like for example Lara Ferroni's rhubarb bars, have been presented in a very attractive way. I have nothing against rhubarb but I have never been really impressed with its taste or appearance. It was growing like a weed in the backyard of my family home in Poland. I liked to eat it raw, dipped in sugar, as many Polish kids did, but I was not fond of cakes or pies made with it. For that reason I will not include rhubarb in my posts, but if you like the idea of reinventing it, this upside-down cake recipe would work with rhubarb as well.

This very simple cake can be prepared in a KitchenAid stand mixer in about 5 minutes. It was the very first cake I made entirely on my own when I was 12, many years ago. It can be made with any seasonal fruits, almost the whole year around. It is a very basic biscuit cake, but fruits make it really special. It is very satisfying with a cup of morning coffee or on a summer afternoon. Yesterday, I saw beautiful ripe blackberries in my local food store and I immediately thought how delicious they would taste and look in that easy cake.

Upside Down Fruit Cake
(For 11'' baking tin)

Ingredients:
4 medium eggs,
2/3 cup flour,
1/3 cup corn starch,
1 tsp baking powder,
1 cup powdered sugar,
4 tbsp of canola or any light cooking oil,
7 tbsp of butter,
1 tsp vanilla extract,
12 oz of blackberries, or any seasonal fruits--blueberries, sour cherries, plums etc.

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Grease the baking tin with butter and sprinkle it evenly with plain bread crumbs (this will prevent the cake from sticking to the tin),
3. Use a mixer to whisk eggs with powdered sugar into a mousse-like mixture.
4. Melt butter, combine it with oil, and add to the mixture.
5. Mix together the flours, the corn starch, and the baking powder, and incorporate them into the batter.
6. Put the batter in a baking tin.
7. Put the fruits on top (they will sink into the batter).
8. Bake for about 45 minutes until the top becomes light gold.
9. Cool the cake, turn it cake upside down on a large serving plate, and dust with powdered sugar.

Useful tip:
If you use apples, you may wish to add cinnamon to the powdered sugar.