COFFEE, MUSHROOM & HAZELNUT LINGUINE

A coffee-based pasta sauce may take a leap of faith for some, but I have to stress – don’t think you’ll be eating a bowl of coffee.

I first encountered coffee in a savoury dish when I was cooking with my mentor in Florence. We made pasta from scratch which was infused with strong, fresh coffee and I was enchanted by it but was never brave enough to replicate in my own kitchen. 

The second time I had coffee in a savoury dish was when I had mushrooms on a rooftop in Cuba. That sounds ominous, but the mushrooms were shredded into small tacos and were smothered in a thick, coffee and peppercorn sauce and it was heavenly.

I hate myself for starting a recipe with travel anecdotes, but this recipe is the amalgamation of both memories, and that’s where we’re at.

You don’t cook the mushrooms in coffee, but you steep them in cold coffee overnight and when you fry them, they release a thick, treacly sauce that that only hints at coffee. It is distinctly umami with a sharp, almost Marmite like, distinction that draws you in deeper with every forkful.

With this recipe, what you get is a dark, treacly sauce that is built up of the reduced coffee juices that dredge out of the hot mushrooms. You don’t actually put coffee in the sauce, it comes from mushrooms that you soak, which then wraps around the strands of pasta and is topped off with the nutty coating of hazelnuts.

Albeit, I don’t have the time in my every day life to make pasta from scratch the way this infusion was introduced to me, I have tried to capture the same essence of the recipe but in a life-friendly method. Sorry Marcella, it’s dry pasta for this one!

PS – if you’re cooking for someone who doesn’t have an open mind – don’t tell them what the sauce is made from. They’ll just enjoy it and won’t ask questions.

Serves 2

3 heaped tablespoons instant coffee

1 tablespoon salt

1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns

250g chestnut mushrooms

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 clove garlic

200g linguine

50g hazelnuts

A handful of fresh parsley (chopped)

1. First make a big jug of strong coffee. I don’t want to waste your time telling you how to make coffee here, but you need it very strong and you need a big jug of it. So pour a litre of water from a recently boiled kettle over the coffee granules in a big jug and then add the salt and peppercorns. Allow to cool before continuing.
2. Slice the mushrooms and drop them into the jug of cold coffee, cover and leave to marinade. I like to leave them overnight in the fridge but an hour on the countertop will be fine.
3. When you’re ready to cook, using your hands or a fork, remove the mushrooms from the coffee. I would say tip them all straight into a sieve or colander, but then you’ll only be picking out peppercorns individually from the mushrooms, which we can agree is annoying. Trust me. I’ve done this more times than I care to count.
4. Bring a large pan of water to the boil for your pasta. Once the water is boiling, salt generously and add your linguine and stir around gently so they soften and are fully submerged. Don’t snap linguine in half just to fit it in the pan. Ever.
5. In a separate large frying pan, melt the butter and olive oil on a medium heat in a big frying pan. Once it bubbles, grate in the garlic and throw the mushrooms into the pan. Allow the mushrooms to cook, oozing their coffee stained liquor, for the same length of time it takes for your pasta to cook which will be anything between 9 to 11 minutes or so.
6. Using tongs or a spider spoon thing, carefully transfer the cooked pasta from the water into the pan of mushrooms. Don’t worry if the pasta is still dripping with water, this will help thicken the coffee sauce. Swirl the pasta around in the pan of coffee mushrooms so that they start taking on the dark, treacly liquor and turn the heat down low and allow to bubble a little.
7. During this time, quickly bash up the hazelnuts – I use a pestle and mortar, but you could just put them in a sturdy bowl and bash with a can of beans or something.
8. Add a third of the hazelnuts into the pasta and toss everything together.
9. Empty the pasta into a bowl before sprinkling over any remaining hazelnuts and the parsley, a good grating of Parmesan wouldn’t be unwelcome either.