The Frugal Gourmet: Spaghetti with Mushrooms

Hi friends!

For my third post, I decided to take on a dish that could be a little more challenging for me, concerning the preparation. So, I decided to take on a spaghetti dish with two different types of mushrooms!

This recipe required lots of multi-tasking. First, I had to soak dried mushrooms in warm water, then give them a rough chop. I also had to slice mushrooms but I purchased pre-sliced to save time. For washing the mushrooms, Smith mentions, "If you must wash them, just rinse them quickly, and then drain and dry them before cooking them" (Smith 231). I followed this method and let the mushrooms dry off while I prepared the spaghetti and sauce.

Re-hydrating the mushrooms

When cooking spaghetti, it's important to salt your water because your pasta will be tasteless without it. Smith recommends fresh pasta for these dishes, but if that isn't available to you pasta made from semolina or durum wheat is preferred since it isn't prone to becoming soggy (Smith 140).

After the spaghetti was cooked and drained, I began to prepare the sauce. First, I heated up olive oil in a steep pan and added pureed garlic since I didn't have fresh garlic. I also added garlic powder for more flavor. Second, I added the two types of mushrooms and let them cook for about six minutes.

Finally, I added the remaining ingredients including heavy whipping cream, salt, and pepper. Following this, I let the mushrooms cook in the pot for a few more minutes. This step took the longest because I had to decide when the mushrooms seemed to have soaked up enough of the cream.  I added the cooked spaghetti into the sauce pot and incorporated it into the sauce. It ended up being too dry, so I added in the rest of the cream instead of just the initial quarter cup.

Mushroom sauce with added cream

 If I were to make this dish again, I would have added the sauce to the pasta when serving rather than mixing it in. Jeff Smith actually recommends this, but I overlooked this step in the recipe. It ended up being a challenge to fully incorporate the sauce when the pasta was in the same pot. Additionally, I would have added less dehydrated mushrooms into the pasta. Fresh mushrooms have less flavor compared to the dry kind; the dehydrated mushrooms pack a punch!

Mixed spaghetti with sauce and cheese

This dish was really creamy and you could definitely taste the mushrooms. If you aren't a fan of mushrooms, you will not enjoy this recipe. This is a perfect winter time dish because it really fills you up! If you'd like a little less mushroom flavor ringing through, I'd suggest adding in shredded mozzarella or Parmesan.

Do you have specific techniques for cooking mushrooms? Have you cooked with fresh pasta before and seen a difference in flavor?

Smith, Jeff. The Frugal Gourmet. Ballantine Books, 1984.

The Frugal Gourmet: Cheese and Tomato Omelet

I've always loved seeing people cook; any given Saturday morning my mom is usually chopping onions with ease and turning a few simple ingredients into a masterpiece. Food is a personal thing. Recipes reflect a person's taste. I, myself, am not very talented in the kitchen. Baking is more my forte; but this time, I decided to step out of my comfort zone.

I decided to turn to Jeff Smith's book, The Frugal Gourmet, to help me become better at cooking for myself. Today, I attempted Smith's cheese and tomato omelet.

For breakfast, I tend to turn to cereal. This time I decided to put a spin on eggs, something that I could eat as an alternative for breakfast. Jeff Smith offers his own method to make a basic omelet, and mentions, "Never use milk in the egg mixture. Use only water. Milk makes your omelet watery since it will not blend with the eggs. Water blends and keeps the omelet high" (Smith 106). This technique was foreign to me; I'm accustomed to seeing omelets made with milk. When I did add the water into the mixture, it was more thick than I'm accustomed to seeing. It kept the eggs smoothly together rather than separating apart.

Whipping the eggs

Heating up the pan

I then heated up the pan with oil and butter. Cooking the eggs wasn't challenging, but getting the uncooked egg to drip down the sides and cook was hard. Instead, I flipped the omelet over.  It was fluffy and rose as mentioned, the kind of omelet you usually want. I think the fluffiness is on account of Smith's technique, which mentions to skip mixing salt into the omelet mixture and instead adding salt when the egg is cooked to prevent hard eggs (Smith 106).  When I have made eggs in the past, I made this accident.  They turned out to be rubbery if not eaten freshly cooked. Eggs should be fluffy!

Overall, the recipe consisted of making a basic omelet and adding the cottage cheese, sauce, and then Parmesan. This recipe isn't for a grab'n'go breakfast. It's for days when you have a little extra time. I did like the combination of familiar flavors; cheese and tomato are versatile ingredients that you can whip up into any meal. Overall, this recipe is a nice shake up if you want to try something new for breakfast! It reminds me a lot of spaghetti because of the sauce inside, but it also is creamy because of the cottage cheese and Parmesan.

Finished product-some sauce spilled over

Which dish for breakfast have you made that requires a little bit more prep time? Is a meal for breakfast you would never attempt to make?


















Smith, Jeff. “The Classic Omelet.” The Frugal Gourmet, Ballantine Books, 1984, pp. 105–108.