Foodie Friday - Creamy Mushroom And Basil Pasta

Hey guys x sorry for the little hiatus but I'm back with a lovely recipe for you x  I've showed you a version of this briefly in one of my What I Ate Today posts, but it's so good I thought it deserved a post in it's own right. The original idea for this recipe came from an advertisement for a certain brand of cheese but I've altered mine a little bit.

Creamy Mushroom And Basil Pasta

300g Pasta Shapes

1oz Butter

Drizzle Of Olive Oil 

2 Cloves Garlic - Crushed or Finely Chopped

8 Cherry Tomatoes 

400g Mushrooms 

200g Cream Cheese

2 dsp Pesto 

Fresh Basil  (Optional)

1. Pop the butter, the olive oil and the garlic into a pan, and heat gently until the butter is melted, and the garlic is starting to soften.

2. In the meantime chop your mushrooms, you can use any variety you like but I love making this with whole baby button mushrooms or with chestnut mushrooms which have a meatier texture and a better flavour - you can chop them roughly or finely whatever you prefer.

Then chop your tomatoes - you can half or quarter them whatever you prefer.

3. After a few minutes the butter should be melted, and the garlic should be starting to soften

At this point add your mushrooms to the pan, and give them a quick stir to make sure their covered in the oil, butter and garlic mix

If you have a lid pop it on, and cook over a medium heat.

4. If your using it tear up some fresh basil

and pop your pasta on I'm using some gluten free spirals but any shape would work.

5. After about 10 minutes your mushrooms should be softened and should have reduced down

Then add the tomatoes and some of the fresh basil and mix in 

Then add the pesto and mix in well.

6. Cream cheese time :) pop the cream cheese into the mushroom mix 

Mix it in slowly and don't panic if it looks as though it's going to curdle

Cook for few minutes and the mixture should start to thicken

7. Once your pasta is cooked drain it well 

Then pop it back into the pan and add the mushroom mix

Stir well until everything is combined

8.  Serve, sprinkled with chopped basil and enjoy :) 

This recipe serves two greedy people very easily and obviously could be adapted to serve more. This is another one of those add what you like and leave out what your don't recipes. If you don't like pesto leave it out, if you want to add some chicken or bacon do it. You could also vary the cream cheese, and use maybe a basil version, or a garlic and herb variety, instead of adding the pesto and basil (like the original recipe). Oh and don't think you need the "branded" cream cheese you don't, I usually make this using the stores cheap own brand - the one I used here was a 200g tub of Tesco Everyday Value Cream Cheese, and its fine x This is a really quick and filling dish that tastes yummy :) I am a real pasta girl so this is definitely one of my favourites :) If you have any questions please leave me a comment x