Creamy mushroom whisky sauce pasta

Id be lying to you if I told you that I knew exactly what I was doing for every single meal. One day I found myself home alone and realised that meant I could make whatever I wanted for dinner. That meant going for mushrooms. My husband hates mushrooms so I will eat them whenever I can because otherwise they go to waste if I buy them in the weekly shop.

Now I know this dish doesn't look creamy from the pictures alone but trust me it was creamy (with no cream might I add). Think of this as a woodland mushroom carbonara. With an egg and Pecorino Romano mixture stirred through the pasta and herbaceous buttery garlic mushrooms with the pasta just before serving. You may be wondering why the whiskey? Well, I didn't have white wine. My husband had an old bottle of a smokey whiskey he isn't a fan off but It really lent itself to the earthy woodiness of the mushrooms.This quick and easy pasta dish comes together in 15 minutes with the pasta cooking while you make the sauce, so let's get to it!

Serves 2

200g pasta of choice (I went with ditalini as it's a quick cook pasta),

200g mixed mushrooms of choice,

3 Tbsp unsalted butter,

1 finely diced shallot,

2 shots of whiskey (a good glug),

2 whole eggs,

300g Pecorino Romano,

1 clove grated garlic,

2 Tbsp finely chopped parsley,

1/2 TSP dry thyme,

Salt and pepper as needed.

1. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. 
2. Meanwhile, add your butter to a pan over a medium heat.
3. Once your butter has melted, add your mushrooms coating them in the butter.
4. Let the mushrooms get brown and caramelised.
5. Now is the time to add your pasta to the water.
6. Add your shallot anf thyme to your mushrooms and cook down until the shallots soften.
7. Add your garlic to the pan and stir fry for 30 seconds.
8. Add your whiskey and stir well and cook down 2-3 minutes. 
9. In a bowl mix together your pecorino Romano, eggs, and a good amount of black pepper.
10. Add a splash of your cooking water to your egg mixture to temper the eggs.
11. Add enough water to make the egg mixture loose and warm (this stops any scrambling).
12. Use a slotted spoon to move your pasta into your frying pan then turn the heat off.
13. Add a splash of pasta water and wait for any bubbling to die down then add your egg mixture.
14. Stir consistently, swirling the pan as you swirl. If you are proficient enough, you could toss the pasta and sauce together.
15. Add more pasta water as needed to help the sauce emulsify and turn creamy.
16. Stir through the parsley.
17. Season to taste and add more salt and pepper as needed.

TROUBLESHOOTING:

You can't save this dish once your eggs have scrambled. The only way to avoid scrambling the eggs is to temper them with the hot pasta water then adding them to the slightly cooled pan from adding some pasta water.

Pasta water is key to a silky creamy sauce, if you feel like you have added too much, turn the heat to low and stir constantly and it will thicken.

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You could definitely add some pancetta to this dish but I would start it off in a cold pan so the fat renders out so you can fry the mushrooms in pancetta buttery goodness.