Creamy Mushroom Pasta with Caramelized Onions and Spinach

Pasta…the dish that can instantly put you in a good mood.  A few months ago I was traveling a good amount and when it finally came to an end, I went in search of a comfort food recipe.  I stumbled across this one on Pintrest and LOVED it!  Such great flavors with the caramelized onions, mushrooms and spinach.  The directions and ingredients seem a bit long, but don’t let it scare you away, it is a pretty easy dish to make.  With another blast of polar air heading to the Midwest this week, I would definitely suggest adding it to the dinner rotation this week.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 onions, medium or large, sliced

pinch of salt

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon olive oil

10 or 15 small mushrooms sliced (I used shiitake with stems removed)

pinch of salt

3 cups spinach

8 oz fettuccine pasta

2/3 cup heavy cream

1/3 cup milk

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1) First we need to caramelize onions. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil on high heat in a large skillet, when oil is heated, add sliced onions and cook on high heat for about 10 minutes, constantly stirring with spatula. The onions should start to brown, but without burning (a couple of onions may be burnt here and there, but overall they should not be charred). Reduce heat to medium and continue cooking onions for 10 more minutes, continuing to stir, as onions brown even more without burning. At this point add just a pinch of salt over onions. Continue cooking for 10 more minutes on medium or low heat, stirring occasionally to make sure onions don’t stick to the bottom of the pan or burn. Total you should have cooked onions for 30 minutes. Remove from heat and sprinkle onions with a small amount of balsamic vinegar to deglaze the pan. Using spatula, mix the onions, scraping the bottom of the pan and coating onions with a pinch of balsamic vinegar you just added.

2) After you have started cooking onions, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in another pan, and add sliced mushrooms (I used shiitake with stems removed, you can use any small sized mushrooms). Add just a pinch of salt. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook mushrooms covered for about 20 minutes, occasionally stirring.

3) Add cooked mushrooms to the pan with caramelized onions, add 3 cups of spinach and stir on low heat just until spinach wilts.

4) Cook pasta according to package instructions. Drain.

5) Add heavy cream, milk, Parmesan cheese and 1/4 teaspoon salt to the mushroom-onions-spinach mixture on medium-low heat and mix. Add pasta to the creamy sauce, stir to coat on low heat for about 5-10 minutes until Parmesan cheese melts and starts to coat pasta as well.

Recipe Source: http://juliasalbum.com

Picture Source: Lindsay Klindt