I absolutely love mushrooms. But unfortunately, none in my family do. So I very rarely cook anything mushrooms.

But one long, lazy afternoon, I was home alone and there was a bag of beautiful button mushrooms chilling in the refrigerator. There was no doubt my lunch was going to revolve around them. The plan was to make a decadent cheesy béchamel to pour on my penne and stud it with lightly sautéed garlicy mushrooms. God! makes me drool to just think back.

I started with sautéing the garlic and mushrooms. About 2 minutes in I thought of replacing the béchamel with a mushroom sauce. Whimsy? Yeah! So about an hour and a cup of milk and a dash of pepper later I had lovely, creamy, dreamy, saucy mushrooms. I tossed my penne in and with the first fork full went to heaven.

Wouldn’t you like to go there too? Then you have to have to try this. You can thank me later.

What goes into it
200 gms finely chopped mushrooms
1 cup milk
1 cup penne pasta
10 – 15 cloves of garlic
2 tbsps olive oil
A dash of pepper
Salt to taste
Water to boil the penne

How to go about it
Clean and finely chop the mushrooms. Crush the garlic cloves. Heat the oil, add the garlic and sauté for a few seconds. Then add the chopped mushrooms. Cook covered for 30 minutes.

At this point the mushrooms would look shriveled, but don’t worry. Add warm milk and cook covered for another 30 mins.

Simultaneously, boil water to cook the penne. This way the pasta and sauce will be ready around the same time.

The sauce is done when the mushrooms have soaked up some of the milk and look plump again. Add the pepper, salt and pasta. Toss well and cook for a couple of seconds. And you are done.

Dig in and experience heaven on earth