Orrechiette with mushroom sauce

This is one of my favorite types of pasta recipes: you can create an amazingly rich and elegant dish all in the time it takes to boil your water and cook your pasta.

So, put on your water to boil. When it gets to a rolling boil, stop what you are doing at a convenient moment, salt the water and add the orrechiette (thumb prints, known as little ears or sometimes priests' ears). Stir to keep from sticking together (never, ever, under fear of eternal Hellfire, add oil of any sort to your pasta while it is cooking). When the pasta is not quite al dente, remove it, drain it and finish cooking it in the sauce in the skillet.

Thinly slice whatever strongly flavored mushroom you want to use. I recommend mastutake, but fresh porcini or chantrelle are good, and even brown crimini are fine (but add some reconstituted dried porcini to give it some oomph).

Finely dice two cloves of garlic.

Finely chop either a generous pinch of fresh calamint or fresh thyme.

Warm olive oil in a saute pan.

Add the mushrooms, calamint and garlic and fry gently.

Deglaze your pan with a generous splash of grappa.

Cook the alcohol out.

Add a generous splash of heavy cream and grate parmeggiana reggiano over it.

Finish with freshly ground nutmeg, finely chopped parsley, freshly cracked pepper and a very light drizzle of black truffle oil.

I probably have posted this already, as it is my favorite autumn pasta (second to a true bolognese, made with Tuscan ragu, of course). Serve with a minerally white wine or a crisp red.