Mushroom Stroganoff

Ingredients

• 8 oz pasta (spaghetti or long noodle)
• 12 oz mushrooms (shiitake, white, portabello, or maitake)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small yellow onion, minced
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp general purpose flour
• 1 cup vegetable broth
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 4 tbsp crème fraîche
• 2 tbsp parsley

Method

Cook the pasta in salted boiling water until it's al dente — it should still have bite when you drain it, because it'll finish cooking in the sauce. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk the flour into the cold broth with the mustard and smoked paprika until smooth. Lumps in your thickening agent will persist through cooking, so break them now.

Melt the butter in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Once it foams, add the minced onion and cook until translucent and beginning to colour at the edges — about 3 minutes. This develops the sweet baseline of the aromatic-vegetables. Add the mushrooms all at once and increase the heat to medium-high. Don't stir for the first two minutes; let them develop a proper sear on their base. Then stir and cook until the moisture they release has entirely evaporated and the mushrooms are taking on colour — you're looking for light browning on the edges, which takes about 6–8 minutes total. This concentrates their umami. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds only; garlic burns fast and turns bitter.

Pour in the broth mixture and stir constantly. The sauce will thicken within 2–3 minutes as the butter-sauce comes to a gentle simmer and the starch gelatinises. You want a consistency that coats the back of a spoon; if it's too thick, thin it with a splash of water. Remove from heat and stir in the crème fraîche. The acid will loosen the sauce slightly and add tang; don't return it to high heat or the cream will split. Taste and adjust salt and pepper now — the dish won't season itself.

Drain the pasta and fold it into the mushroom sauce off the heat, turning gently until every strand is coated. The residual heat will finish the pasta's cooking without toughening it. Finish with fresh parsley and serve immediately. Stroganoff breaks down if it sits; the sauce tightens and the pasta absorbs the liquid unevenly.