Spaghetti Tetrazzini

Johan's been working hard on his term paper and said he felt like some spaghetti today, any kind of spaghetti. So, I turned to another of the cookbook I got from him, Jamie Oliver's 'Jamie's Italy'. At first glance this book is full of a lot of grilling and seafood, but it's actually quite good for those who like pasta and Italien food because he does go into details into some of the cooking methods like for risotto. I decided to try this since I've just grilled a chicken yesterday and we had some porcini mushroom that I bought from our trip to Rome and haven't had the opportunity to try yet.

Dried Porcini mushrooms or Boletus edulis ...looks like Chinese dried mushroom but taste quite different. Porcini means piglets in Italien, did you know that? It's not 'fragrant' like the Chinese ones, but more earthly smell and taste....kinda intoxicating I would describe it. Probably the closest to describe it would be like a mushroom that has been stewed for a while, all condensed into one.

One thing that has to be said, I think his portions in this book is quite large!! The original recipe is said to serve 4, so I halved it and still I think I have enough to feed 4 persons. So here's the halved recipe:

Ingredients
10g of dried porcini mushrooms
splash of olive oil
2 chicken thighs, boned, skinned and cut into bit-sized pieces.(I used the grilled chicken thighs I had instead.)
salt and ground pepper
1 clove of garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
175g of mixed fresh mushrooms, cleaned, sliced or torn up
100ml of white wine
230g dried spaghetti
250ml of double cream
70g + 30g Parmesan cheese, grated
1 sprig of fresh basil, leaves only

Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Soaked the porcini mushroom in about 150ml of hot water, remember to retain the soaking water.Start boiling the water for cooking the pasta.
   
2. Heat up a pan big enough to hold all the ingredients, and pour in the olive oil.
3. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and brown them in the pan. You should add the pasta to cook in the other pot where the water is boiling, remember to salt the water.
   
4. Add the drained porchini mushroom, garlic and fresh mushroom and stir fry them till the fresh mushrooms begins to soften.
   
5. Add in the wine and the soaking water from the mushroom, and turn the heat down to simmer till the chicken is cook through and the wine has reduced a little.
   
   
   
   
   
6. Check the pasta, it should be al dente. Turn off the heat if its already done.
7. Add cream to the pan of chicken, bring it to boil and turn the heat off. Season it with salt and pepper, and drain the spaghetti and add it to the mixture and toss it well.
8. Add in 70g of grated Parmesan cheese and the basil leaves and mix well. Transfer to an oven proof baking dish.
9. Sprinkle with the remaining 30g of cheese making sure to cover the surface area and baked in the oven for about 15-20 minutes or until the top is golden brown and bubbling.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
10. When done, drizzle with more olive oil and cheese before serving.