fettucine with mushrooms and sage

On the night before a planned large dinner for New Year's eve, we wanted a light, but festive pasta dish, with some different flavors than the usual repertoire. Home made fettucine said "festive" and the mushroom, sage and lemon sauce said "flavorful".

As a preview of coming attractions: late in January the complete web site, classicpasta.com, will be up on the web. Pasta, risotto, polenta and myriads of flavorful suaces and preparations. Look for it.

To the New Years' eve's eve pasta dish.

for the sauce:

• six ounces of mushrooms, shitake or crimini prefered
• one ounce of dried porcini mushrooms
• two tablespoons roughly chopped fresh sage (and save a couple of leaves)
• three cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• one-half lemon
• six tablespoons (or more) of unsalted butter
• pinch of red pepper flakes
• one-quarter cup heavy cream
• one-quarter cup freshly grated parmesan

for the pasta:

one pound freshly made (ideally) fettucine or tagliatelle

Soak the dried porcini in medium hot water for fifteen minutes. Take out the porcini, (do not throw away the liquid), and squeeze the porcini dry on a paper towel. Then roughly chop them.

Chop off the stems of the fresh mushrooms and chop the mushrooms roughly in strips about one-quarter inch wide. Grate the peel of the lemon for zest, and then squeeze the juice of the lemon into a cup and hold.

Melt the six tablespoons of butter over medium heat in a saute pan. Add the garlic for ten seconds. Add the sage and the red pepper flakes. Add the fresh mushrooms and saute for two minutes. Add the chopped porcini. Add a couple of tablespoons of the reserved porcini liquid to the pan. Saute for three minutes, until all the mushrooms are tender.

Add the lemon juice, the zest and the cream. Saute for about a minute or so over medium high heat to reduce the sauce.

Cook the fettucine in five quarts of boiling hot, salted water, until al dente. Drain and add to the heated sauce. Add a tablespoon of butter. Stir thoroughly so every strand of the pasta is well coated. Add the parmesan and stir some more. Serve in heated bowls immediately.Take a few sprigs of fresh sage that you have saved and put on the presentation for decoration.