brown pasta

pasta is my ultimate comfort, happy mood food. i love the texture, versatility, and ease with which dry noodles, water, and a few ingredients can produce delicious, mouth watering delights. while it's true that i could subsist for days and months on end on nothing but pasta + marinara, i also like to play with tasty combos. this pasta may have a boring name - one that my brother made ample fun of - but its simplicity belies the complexity of flavors that burst in every mouthful. plus, i like the mystery that 'brown pasta' implies...

so, the other day, inspired by an appetizer i shared with a friend at pipa, i picked up some figs at the grocery store to marry with the portobello mushrooms and red onions i already had at home. figs and mushrooms - why had i never thought of that before?!

so, to start things off, i boiled some water for my brown rice penne - from trader joe's. if you've never tried brown rice pasta, whether or not you have gluten issues, i highly recommend the trader joe's brand. it keeps its shape for a perfect al dente consistency and absorbs the flavors of the sauce with enthusiasm!

next i let a couple of tablespoons of olive oil heat up in my large saute pan while i sliced up half a medium sized red onion into thin, half moon slices. once the oil was hot, i threw in the onions and let them cook over medium heat.

water boiling, so in goes the pasta - about 1/2 of the bag (approx 8 oz). since i use the pasta water to finish off the sauce, it was important that the pasta cook alongside the sauce so the water would be ready in time.

to the onions i added two medium sized portobello mushroom caps, thinly sliced, and then cut into thirds - so that every piece was approximately 1" long and 1/2" wide. i sauteed them together with the onions for another few minutes until the mushrooms began to develop that gorgeous goldeny carmelization - so good! while they goldened themselves up, i quarted about a dozen fresh figs (approx 1.5" in diameter) - and yes, i stole a couple of pieces to 'test' them. yum!

i tossed the fig pieces into the saute pan and let them brown for just a minute or two, and then to the pan i added some balsamic vinegar - roughly one turn of the pan, so i'm guessing maybe an 1/8 cup? at the same time the pasta was boiling and some of the starches had risen to the top, so i skimmed water off the top and added it to my sautee pan - around a ladle full.

i wanted the fig & portobello mixture to reduce down and thicken up, so i turned the burner down to simmer while i drained the pasta. i reserved the liquid in case i needed more to finish off the dish (i did).

to the simmering 'brown' sauce i added about 3 or 4 leaves of finely chopped basil (clipped from the basil plant i've been growing this summer!), a few turns of my pepper mill, and a small pinch of salt. less than i normally add to pasta b/c of the strong flavors in the balsamic vinegar and the salted pasta water. when the sauce was a nice consistency - not to thick, not watery - i added in the pasta directly to the pan and let the sauce coat and penetrate the pasta for a few minutes while i continued to turn the pasta with tongs. i added another ladle of the pasta water to pan for more moisture.

i served it warm and could imagine that goat cheese crumbled on top would have been fantastic. next time...

ingredients:
olive oil
1/2 medium red onion
2 medium portobello caps
~dozen fresh figs
1/8 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 pound brown rice pasta (i like trader joe's brand, but i'm sure it'll work with non-gluten free pasta, too)
fresh basil
pinch of salt
pepper

start to finish, about 15 minutes. made 2 healthy servings, or 3-4 small servings, with a nice bit left over for the next day :)

happy eating!