New year’s resolutions. Usually I am against them myself although others seem to do well with a dry or healthy January (well done, guys!). I actually made a small resolution this year and it is totally food related of course; to cook more from my cookbooks.

I have a bit of a, ahem, cookbook addiction and since I don’t want to stop buying new shiny ones I thought I’d better utilise the ones I’ve got. So far I have already cooked a few things from my newly acquired ‘Gordon Ramsay’s Ultimate Cookery Course‘, among other things this pasta recipe with mushrooms and leek.

It sounds very ordinary and it sort of is, yet very delicious. The sauce is silky without being too rich (especially with a splash of white wine added to cut through the cream) and the fried mushrooms and leek are very tasty. I also like that the pasta in this dish is lasagne sheets although the dish is quite far from a regular or even open lasagne. But it really works and I prefer it to many other pasta shapes.

Pasta with mushrooms and leek, serves 2

Adapted from ‘Gordon Ramsay’s Ultimate Cooking Course‘.

For once I followed the recipe dutifully, apart from one small addition; a splash of white wine in the cream sauce.

8 chestnut mushrooms, thinly sliced

1 garlic clove, peeled and chopped

1 leek, washed, trimmed, quartered and sliced

oil for frying

salt, pepper

250 ml chicken stock

100 ml double cream

1 tbsp white wine

4-6 lasagne sheets

To serve: grated parmesan, optional

Heat up the oil in a frying pan on medium heat and add the sliced mushrooms. Add the garlic after two minutes and the leek after another two. Fry until the mushrooms are golden and the leek has softened. Season.

Add the chicken stock and let it reduce for five minutes. 

In the meantime, cook the lasagne sheets in salted water until al dente, for four minutes. Add the cream to the mushrooms and a splash of wine and let it thicken. Season to taste. Remove from heat and submerge the lasagne sheets in the sauce. Plate prettily and serve with or without grated parmesan.