Mushroom Tagliatelle with Garlic Confit in a Light Butter Sauce
This is one of the dishes I make when I have vegetables leftover from the week
This dish is packed with flavours even though it’s vegetarian (there’s a bit of butter and cheese so it’s not vegan). It’s a meat-eater approved dish. Garlic confit might sound fancy, but it’s super easy to make. You got this.
Element 1: Garlic confit
If you recall, I made Miso-BBQ Sauce Ribs with Mash yesterday. I sneaked in some garlic in a ramekin with a lid on in a lower heat area, with the oven set to 160 celcius. You can keep the skin on, just slice the pointy tip off to expose a bit of the garlic. It will make your life easier when you press it out after it’s been cooked and softened.
If you are just heating up the garlic in the oven, you can try 150 celcius for ~45 mins, away from the hot spots. if you are a bit anxious making it for the first time, you can lower the temp to 140 celcius for ~60 mins. It is quite forgiving. Just open the lid and check if it’s soft. You want it to be soft enough that you can squeeze the garlic out in a paste-like consistency from the skin.
Technically to confit something is to slow cook it in oil, but my understanding is that there is a risk of botulism when garlic is slow cooked in a low-oxygen environment. To lower the risk, I cook it without oil and add oil back in after it’s been cooked. As with all things food safety related, please be sure to do your own homework! Timing and temps are for reference only.
Pro tip: oven temp on the display is the target temp and it’s not perfect, if you have more food in the oven the temp could be slightly lower, which can be helpful as well, just be sure to accommodate for the difference
Pro tip: there are spots in your oven that are hotter and some that are cooler, typically the area closer to the oven door will be a cooler spot
Once the garlic has cooled, I squeeze it out into the same ramekin and toss the skin. It can get a bit messy just wash your hands after! I loosen it with olive oil until it reaches a spreadable consistency. I don’t loosen it too much when I put it in the fridge because I can always add more oil after, but you can’t take the oil out once you add it in. You have too much oil in the confit if it no longer mixes and you see bits of oil floating about in the paste. Roughly, for every 2 teaspoons of garlic, I’ll add 1 teaspoon of olive oil. Any leftover garlic confit, I put it in the fridge for another day. I’ll use it in more recipes in the next few days so be sure to subscribe for more ideas ;)
Element 2: Tagliatelle
Boil water, cook pasta according to the packaging, set aside
Element 3: Mushrooms
Slice mushrooms thin (~ 1/8 inch or 3mm), quite relaxed, you can even tear the mushrooms into chunks by hand for a more rustic look
Slice leeks — as much as you like or none at all depending on how you feel about leeks
Heat up your pan, I use a stainless steel chef’s pan with a smaller round base so the sauce does not evaporate too quickly
Add a tablespoon of olive oil, pan-fry leeks at medium-high heat, add mushrooms before the leeks brown and bring heat down to a medium
When the mushrooms look nearly ready, add a teaspoon of wholegrain mustard, and 2 tablespoons of butter, let it cook on low heat for 1-2 minutes (be careful not to burn or brown the butter)
Switch the heat off, add a splash of white wine (I use a non-alcoholic kind), 1-2 teaspoons of garlic confit, and slowly stir in 200ml of water
Pro tip: this is similar to a “reverse beurre monté”, with the butter going in first to panfry the mushrooms, a beurre monté is also a lot creamier whereas this dish aims for a lighter butter emulsion sauce
Add your warm tagliatelle to the pan, thinly sliced salad greens on top, a sprinkle of fleur de sel salt, and mix
Pro tip: if you add salad greens into the sauce first it will get wet and clumpy, but if you add it on top of the pasta it will mix evenly
Plate, add a bit of shredded parmesan and voilà!
What did you cook today? Let me know in the comments. Happy cooking! 🍖