Mushroom Carbonara

Mushrooms take the place of the traditional cured pork in this vegetarian carbonara recipe - but fear not, the dish does not lack depth of flavour. A deep browning on the mushrooms, coupled with garlic and shallots, brings the humble button mushroom to a higher place.

sea salt
1½ lb crimini or button mushrooms
6 cloves garlic
2 medium shallots
1 cup fresh parsley leaves with tender stems (about ½ bunch)
5 large egg yolks
1 large egg
4 oz Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
1½ tsp. black pepper, freshly ground
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 lb orecchiette

Garnish:
Parmesan cheese, freshly grated

Fill a large pot with water and season well with a few big pinches of salt. Bring to a boil.

Meanwhile, do some veg prep. Tear off and discard stems of 1½ lb crimini or button mushrooms, then tear them into quarters (or in halves if small). Transfer to a medium bowl. Lightly smash and peel 6 cloves garlic, then thinly slice. Peel and finely chop 2 medium shallots. (A small red onion will work fine in a pinch.) Coarsely chop 1 cup parsley leaves with tender stems.

Whisk 5 large egg yolks, 1 large whole egg, 4 oz Parmesan (about 1¼ cups), and 1½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper in another medium bowl; set aside.

Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high for a good 3 minutes. You want to get the pan very hot since adding the mushrooms is going to lower the temperature of the surface of the pan. Toss mushrooms and ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil once in pan to coat in oil. Cook, tossing once every 4-5 minutes (but mostly undisturbed), until mushrooms are mostly golden brown, 13-16 minutes. This will take some time and they will let out a lot of moisture before they start to brown, so stick with it.

Once mushrooms have been cooking for about 10 minutes, drop 1 lb orecchiette into boiling salted water and set a timer 2 minutes shy of al dente according to package directions.

Back to those mushrooms. Once you've finished the browning process, reduce heat to medium-low and add garlic, shallots, and 1½ tsp. salt. Cook, stirring often, until aromatics are softened but not browned, 30-60 seconds.

When pasta is 2 minutes shy of al dente, scoop out 2 cups pasta cooking liquid, then drain pasta.

Add pasta along with 1 cup pasta cooking liquid to mushroom mixture. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring often to finish cooking the pasta and absorb liquid, about 2 minutes (this is why you're cooking the pasta 2 minutes shy of al dente; it allows for the flavours to meld as the pasta finishes cooking in the sauce). Remove from heat and let cool 1 minute. (Don't skip this step - if the pasta is too hot when you add the egg mixture, it will turn into scrambled eggs instead of a luxurious sauce.)

Add ½ cup pasta cooking liquid to reserved egg mixture and whisk to combine and loosen eggs. Gradually add egg mixture to pot, stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon and adding more pasta cooking liquid as needed to loosen things up, until a very creamy, luscious sauce coats all noodles.

Makes 4 servings.