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Dinner/Lunch / Food / Kristen Cooks

Weeknight Dinner – Pork and Porcini Pasta

There is nothing I love better than finding a recipe that surprises me with its’ simplicity and bomb flavor! This pork and porcini pasta does exactly that.

If you have read any of my other posts, you may know that I grew up an incredibly picky eater. I could stomach about 3 vegetables, one being potatoes! One of the things on my absolute no-go list was mushrooms. That lasted well into my thirties, even after I had realized that I actually had an affinity for veggies of all sorts (once I actually began tasting them!). It took a lot of travel and eating with varied groups of people to get me out of my no zone and into my go zone when it comes to food. And I am thankful for that! Otherwise, I would not be sitting here writing about this amazing pork and porcini pasta!

The origin of the recipe

If you have read other recipes of mine, you might also know that I am a Jamie Oliver fan. His 5 Ingredient cookbook changed my world, at least in my kitchen! Check out this preview of the book on Google. This book has so many easy weeknight or lunch recipes that my book binding is completely broken from use. This is one I will tape, rubber band or perform some sort of ridiculous glueing procedure to ensure it stays kicking around! Some of the recipes have been committed to memory, or are flexible enough that I know the gist of the ingredients and wing it from there. Truly enjoyable cooking! Anyhow, this oprk porcini recipe is very close to one in “5 Ingredients”, with only tweaks to the ingredient amounts.

Pork and porcini pasta
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Pork and porcini pasta

Recipe by kristenCourse: Dinner/Lunch, Food, Kristen CooksCuisine: PastaDifficulty: Easy
Servings

4

servings
Prep time

10

minutes
Cooking time

20

minutes

Ground pork with porcini mushrooms and rotini pasta

Ingredients

  • 1 pound ground pork

  • 1 1/2 oz dried porcini mushrooms (or any mix of dried mushrooms of your liking)

  • 1 onion, diced

  • 12 oz dried pasta (I used rotini here, but penne, large shells, rigatoni or other types where the mushroom and pork can get lost in the pasta works great!)

  • 1 3/4 oz parmesan cheese (finely grated)

  • Ingredients that Jamie Oliver does not consider part of the 5 core ingredients

  • 1 Tbsp grapeseed oil
    1 Tbsp red wine vinegar

  • Salt and Pepper

Directions

  • Boil about 2 cups of water. Place the dried mushrooms in a small bowl and cover with boiling water. Ensure they are fully covered.
  • Cook the pasta per the box instructions, but remove 1-2 mins short of the cooking time. Pasta should be al dente, as it will cook further when combined with other ingredients. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the starchy water. Set aside
  • Heat oil in large frying pan. Add pork and continue to break up as it browns. If there is excessive oil, drain carefully before moving to next step. Keep an eye on your pasta…do not overcook! Wink!
  • Drain the porcinis, reserving all of the water left behind. Add the mushrooms and onion to the pan with the pork. Fry until all is golden
  • Add the red wine vinegar and the porcini water. Note that the last bit will have gritty bits, so add slowly and stop when the grit is visible, so as not to add. Turn heat to low and allow to simmer about 8-10 mins.
  • Add the drained pasta to the frying pan, as well as 1/2 cup of the pasta water. Add in most of the parmesan, reserving a small bit to add over top once served. Toss to combine
  • If sauce is too thick, add remaining 1/2 cup of pasta water and stir until you have the consistency you want
  • Add salt and pepper, as well as more oil over top to taste. Curly or flat leaf parsley is also an option to garnish. Enjoy!

If you like this recipe, take a peek at my recipe for Asian Inspired Veggie Salad Feast, which was also a Jamie Oliver inspired dish!

Food / Kristen Cooks

Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas

There is nothing better than a recipe that wows and ALSO proves to be incredibly easy. This recipe is both. Once you have gathered all of your ingredients, your slow cooker does the bulk of the work! One of the best parts is that the leftovers can be better than the initial recipe itself!

Ingredients:

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Ingredients

  • 3.75 – 4 pound bone-in pork butt roast. We love the quality of the pork delivered from Crowd Cow

  • 1 Red onion, cut into fairly large wedges

  • 6-8 garlic cloves. In my house, more is always better!

  • 1 Tbsp. kosher salt

  • 2 Tsp. course ground pepper

  • 1 Tbsp. dried oregano

  • 2 Bay leaves

  • .75 cup Pineapple or Apple juice

  • .75 cup cola (made with cane sugar, rather than corn syrup, if you can find it). Coca Cola now has their old style cane sugar cola in the bottles!

Instruction

Here is the best part…the simplicity! Trim a bit of the fat cap off of the pork butt. There should be a significant amount left, but I find removing about 1/4 of the fat has best results. Score what is left of the fat cap and place roast into the crock pot fat cap to the side. Add balance of the ingredients, close and seal lid and set to low temp for 7.5 hours. Your job here is almost done!

Once the slow cooker is done, you should have an amazingly browned top and fall-apart roast sitting in some pretty amazing juices! Remove the roast to a cutting board and let rest for 15 or so mins. Using your hands, or 2 forks, pull the pork apart into chunks, leaving some chunks larger than others (this just makes the texture more interesting! Remove any excessive fat that is left, although most will have rendered into the juice that flavored the roast! Yum! Do not toss the juice just yet…

Transfer pork to very lightly oiled sheet pan and spread out. Pour some of the juice over top just to put moisture evenly. Crisp under the broiler just until crispy at edges and beautifully browned all over! If you intend to only use a portion of the pork right away, you can broil only what you will be serving and store the balance (with some of the juice) to broil or to pan fry at the point that you intend to use.

Serving

So…many…options. Tortillas, salsa, chopped onion, cilantro, diced tomato, salsa verde…sky is the limit! For this meal, I went simple with flour tortillas, some diced tomato, serrano chilis, leafy greens and cilantro. Leftovers this morning were super crisped in a pan and were as, if not more, delicious than the first go around!

If you like this recipe, you may also like my amazing recipe for Carne Asada lettuce wraps!! Give it a try!!

Kristen Cooks

Carne Asada lettuce wraps

One of my favorite cuts of beef is the flank steak. Properly marinated, this is a versatile option for eating as the star of a lunch or dinner dish, in a taco, burrito, or on a crusty baguette. The key is in the marinade used and how the steak is cut, once it is rested.

The marinade

I have tried dozens of different marinades and have yet to find one that disappointed. My favorite marinades for carne asada have the same core ingredients: citrus, oil, garlic and herbs. However, recipes can vary, some containing soy sauce, red wine, hot chilis and other ingredients that add acid, beyond what the citrus naturally adds.

I can recommend a couple differing recipes here that I have found in my recipe hunting. Both resulted in an amazingly flavored flank steak: https://www.crowdcow.com/recipe/aayi5sgk0/marinated-flank-steak and https://thestayathomechef.com/authentic-carne-asada/ The first is from Crowd Cow, which is an amazing meat and seafood delivery company and the second a fellow food blogger that based her recipe on one originally from world renowned chef, Rick Bayless. Note the Pro Tip in the second recipe: Be sure to always cut a flank steak against the grain to ensure it is served tender.

Grilling or Broiling

You will note in the above recipes that you can grill or, alternatively, broil the steak in the oven. I prefer to broil, mainly because I know my oven and can predict how long to cook on each side for a 1 pound steak (3-4 mins/side). The oven is ripping hot when broiling, which leaves the outside with beautiful sear and the inside medium and juicy. However, this is just a preference.

Serving

This is the easy part. Serve with whatever floats your boat! One of my favorite ways to serve Carne Asada is very simple. Butter lettuce, salsa, sautéed peppers and onion and some fresh, crunchy veg. In this case, sliced cucumbers for me and habaneros for John, who loves the heat.

Of course, tortillas, beans, cilantro and other typical Mexican sides would also be amazing.

My personal pro tip: Always top with a bit of course, crunchy sea salt!