One of my favorite Italian fresh pasta recipes is the simple fettuccine porcini. This homemade noodle dish uses the chef favorite boletus mushroom for its amazing earthy-umami flavor.
While I love making homemade fettuccine for these types of recipes, you absolutely can use store-bought. The whole fresh or dry debate is mostly a personal preference, and since you are the one eating it you should use what you prefer.
Another great thing about this fresh pasta recipe is that it uses dry mushrooms instead of fresh. This means if you area shroom forager you can use what you’ve found any time of year! Or you can just buy dry porcini at the grocery.
How To Make Homemade Fettuccine Pasta
All of my Italian fresh pasta recipes use the exact same ingredients. It doesn’t matter if I am making a ravioli or a pappardelle, or in this case a fettuccine. This is different than my Chinese hand pulled noodles for example which only needs flour, water, and salt.
Ingredients
- 2 cups Flour – I use AP flour but you can use a cup of AP and a cup of Semolina if you like, which is a popular method in Italy.
- 2 tbsp Olive Oil – try to find something cold pressed, extra virgin as you really want to use high quality olive oil when making fresh pasta.
- 3 large Eggs – room temperature
- 1 tsp Salt
Add all of your ingredients to a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment and let knead at the lowest setting until combined. You can also do this by hand on a flat, floured surface; I just find the stand mixer to remove a TON of work.
When the dough is pulled into a nice tight ball you can take it out of the mixer. Knead it into a ball and place it in a bowl to rest for a half hour. This lets the gluten activate more and create a great mouthfeel when you eat your homemade fettuccine.
After resting the dough, move it to a floured surface and cut it into four pieces. I find four pieces to be a good amount as each piece is a very hearty serving per person. Note: if you are serving pasta in the traditional Italian way as a primi, then each quarter makes a serving for two people.
Use a rolling pin to shape the dough piece into a flat-ish rectangle. Then feed the dough into a pasta roller starting at the largest thickness and moving thinner. I use a classic hand-cranked Imperial machine, so I go to the second thinnest setting (the thinnest is for wonton or gyoza wrappers).
My Imperial pasta roller has a cutting attachment for linguine (small) and fettuccine (big). I just put that on and run the sheet of pasta through it while hand cranking at a even pace. Then move all your fettuccine strips back to the floured surface and toss them in flour so they do not stick to each other.
How To Make The Best Fettuccine Porcini
For this recipe I am using dry porcini mushroom caps. Dry porcini is actually recommended for this recipe as they have a more intense flavor than fresh. For this recipe I use about 25 grams, or an ounce of dry mushrooms.
Add the mushrooms to a bowl and pour over warm water. Let sit for about 2 hours, but you can soak for less if your porcini mushrooms have already been cut into strips.
When the porcini mushroom caps are soft and pliable remove them from the soaking liquid (do not throw away the liquid) and cut into strips. This is going to be how they look in the pasta, so cut to your desired preference.
In a pan on medium heat add a little olive oil, the mushrooms, red chili flakes, salt, freshly cracked black pepper, and minced garlic. Stir around so everything gets coated in the oil and begins to sauté.
After a couple minutes, or earlier if you notice the garlic being to burn, add in half a cup (125 ml) of the mushroom soaking liquid. See, that’s why you never throw it out. That porcini broth has so much great flavor it would be a shame not to re-incorporate it into a delicious fettuccine porcini.
After the mushroom liquid comes to temperature add in a cup of heavy whipping cream and stir everything around. We want to bring the cream up to temperature so it thickens nicely and provides a rich sauce for the noodles.
As soon as you add the cream to the pan you can add half of the fresh fettuccine noodles to a pot of boiling water. This recipe serves 4 people but only uses half of the homemade fettuccine. If you want to serve 8 people then double the porcini sauce portion and use all the pasta. Fresh pasta cooks much faster than dry so you only need to boil it for about 2 minutes. If it feels under-done don’t worry, it will finish in the porcini sauce.
Use tongs to move the noodles directly from the pot to the pan. Do not worry if you bring over a lot of the starchy pasta water, it is okay. Use tongs to mix everything up and then turn off the heat. Plate immediately and serve. Enjoy this fresh fettuccine porcini any time of year!
You can grate some Parmigiano Reggiano cheese over the pasta after plating, or any hard salty cheese you prefer. I actually like to use a bit of cured egg yolk to elevate the dish and really impress my guests.
Fettuccine Porcini
Equipment
- 1 stand mixer (optional) with hook attachment
- 1 Pasta Roller (optional) either electric or hand cranked
- 1 rolling pin
Ingredients
Fresh Pasta
- 2 cups Flour AP or a mix of AP and Semolina
- 2 tbsp Olive Oil extra virgin, cold pressed
- 3 large Eggs room temperature
- 1 tsp Salt
Fettuccine Porcini
- 25 grams Dry Porcini Mushrooms 1 ounce
- 250 ml Heavy Cream 1 cup
- 4 cloves Garlic minced
- 1 tsp Red Chili Flakes optional
- Salt For the pasta water, for every liter of water add two tablespoons of salt.
- 1/2 tsp Black Pepper freshly cracked
- Water for soaking the Porcini
- Olive Oil for sauteing
- Parmigiano Reggiano optional, I use grated cured egg as a substitute, but you can use whatever you like to finish the pasta.
Instructions
Fresh Pasta
- In the bowl of a stand mixer add all the ingredients. Run the machine for roughly 10 minutes, or until everything is well kneaded and you have a stretchy, elastic ball of pasta
- Place ball in a bowl and cover with a towel. Let sit for 30 minutes.
- Flour your surface and divide ball into 4 pieces. Use the rolling pin to shape them into flat-ish rectangels.
- Feed the dough through the pasta roller starting at the thickest setting and moving down until desired thinness. On my machine (Imperial) it is the second to last thickness setting, yours should be similar.
- Attach the fettuccine cutter into the rolling machine and feed the dough through the cutters. Toss the freshly cut fettuccine in some flour so the strands do not stick together.
- To cook the fresh pasta you will not need more than 2 minutes as fresh pasta cooks much faster than dry pasta. Watch the pot so you can get it perfectly al dente.
Fettuccine Porcini
- Add the dry Porcini mushrooms to a bowl and cover with warm water. Let sit for 2 hours. If you are using already sliced Porcini mushrooms they will only take around 30 minutes to reconstitute.
- Set a pot of heavily salted water to boil.
- Remove the mushrooms from the water and cut into strips. DO NOT throw away the liquid, we will use it later.
- In a pan on medium-high heat add a bit of olive oil and toss in the porcini, black pepper, red chili flakes, and minced garlic. Give everything a good stir to coat with the oil and sauté for a couple minutes.
- Once the garlic begins to get fragrant add in 1/2 cup of the mushroom soaking liquid and stir everything up.
- Once the liquid comes to temperature add in the heavy cream and stir everything up. At the same time add half of the fresh pasta to the boiling water to boil for 2 minutes.
- Use tongs to move the freshly boiled pasta from the pot to the pan. Don't worry if you bring the water with you, it is good for the dish overall as it will perfectly salt the sauce. You can add more salt at the end if you feel it needs it, but that's what I use the cheese or cured egg for.
- Give everything a mix with the tongs so everything is combined and the fettuccine is well coated. Plate, garnish with cheese or cured egg yolk, serve, and enjoy!
Notes
