Fettucine with Mushroom Sauce

This foolproof recipe from Julie Biuso's Viva L'Itali cookbook is the surest way to your impress your guests without having to slog in the kitchen. I've made the mushroom sauce more times than I can remember with countless requests to share the recipe. This is the original recipe but you can just about use any kinds of mushrooms - wild, chestnut, portabellini or oyster as long as skip the first step. If you don't care for spring onion, replace it with flat leaf parsley as I've done here.







Serves 4 as a main course.

30g (1 tightly packed cup) dried porcini (or cepe) mushrooms
50g butter
1 spring onions, finely sliced
salt
freshly ground
70g ham off the bone, sliced and cut into thin strips
125ml (1/2 cup) cream
400g fettuccine
freshly grated parmesan cheese for serving

1. Put the porcini mushrooms in a small saucepan using 250ml(1 cup) hot water and bring it to a simmer for 10 minutes. Reserve 175ml of the strained porcini liquid.
2. Heat a large frypan over a medium heat and add the butter. When it is sizzling, add the spring onions and cook until they are wilted and a pale golden color.
3. Mix in the chopped porcini mushrooms, stir well, sprinkle with salt and grind on some black pepper.
4. Pour in the reserved porcini mushroom liquid and bring the sauce to the boil. Lower the heat and cook gently for about 15 minutes or until reduced by about two-thirds (the porcini should be floating in the liquid but not drowned in it).
5. Add the ham and cream, cook gently for a minute or two until combined, then turn off the heat.
6. Meanwhile, cook the pasta in plenty of gently boiling, well salted water until al dente. Drain briefly and turn into a heated serving dish. Pour on the sauce, toss well and serve immediately with parmesan cheese.