Mushroom and Sun-dried Tomato Angel Hair

Just popping in for a quick post here guys. This is a recipe makeover, aka I messed up but rolled with it and it turned out pretty good. You can find the original recipe here.

The original calls for both cream and half & half.  I wanted to make this recipe a little healthier, so I was determined to eliminate the cream and cut the amount of half & half, well in half, and substitute it with skim milk. When I started cooking I forgot that I was halving the recipe and just had to wing it from the point I made my mistake.

Start off by sauteing a pound of baby bella mushrooms, or crimini in a tablespoon of olive oil in a fairly deep sauce pan. Season your mushrooms with fresh cracked pepper and a 1/2 teaspoon of salt. You're going to be using bouillon cubes a little later and they're fairly salty. Salt with caution at this stage! The baby bellas were on sale at my grocery store, 2 for $5 so that's what I used, but you could use half bellas and half white mushrooms too. Once the mushrooms begin to soften and turn brown add an ounce of diced sun-dried tomatoes. For me that was about 3 whole tomatoes. This is where a food scale comes in handy. Also add a couple cloves of minced garlic to the mushrooms. I used a teaspoon of pre-minced garlic.

While your mushrooms are sauteing, put 1 cups of water on the stove to boil. Add 2 vegetable or chicken bouillon cubes to the boiling water and let dissolve. Add the broth to your sauce pan with the mushrooms and tomatoes and garlic. Let sauce simmer and reduce by half. I let mine simmer while I cooked my angel hair pasta according to package directions. Add a half cup of half & half and bring the sauce back to a boil. Add a half cup of grated Parmesan cheese. Stir while the cheese melts into the sauce.

Drain your angel hair pasta and return it to the pot you cooked it in. Pour the sauce over top of the angel hair and stir to coat all of the pasta. My sauce was pretty liquidy at this point, so I let the pasta sit for about 5 minutes. The pasta will absorb some of the liquid. Voila! Dinner is ready.

I feel like this dish could benefit from herbage, like freshly chopped basil, or even some Italian seasoning cooked in. Also, the sweetness of the sun-dried tomatoes gets lost with the meatiness of the mushrooms. If I made this again, I would probably use roasted red peppers instead, or just forgo them entirely.