Wild Mushroom and Goat Cheese Pasta with Wilted Greens

On the way out of work tonight I took pause to make obnoxious remarks to my vege co-workers. A little over-compensation for hiring back-to-back vegetarians. So, to cleanse my conscience I made a vegetarian meal tonight. At least what passes for vegetarian around here.

I made a pit stop at Trader Joe's on the way home from work the other night and picked up a few items, including the always-popular frozen wild mushroom mix and a log of goat cheese among other things.

I also had a bag of baby collard greens and young onions from a farm stand.

So, pasta it was for tonight.

Here's the recipe

1/2 pound of pasta

1 1 pound bag of frozen TJ's mushrooms

3 young onions, bulbs only

4-5 ounce log of fresh goat cheese

A couple of handfuls of greens, baby spinach would work -- although the baby collards were great if you can find them

Start the pot of at least a gallon of water boiling, salt liberally.

Add the pasta to the water depending on how long your past needs to cook. We were using angel hair, so I added it to the water when the mushrooms were almost done.

In a saute' pan set to med-hi add the mushrooms and a touch of olive oil. The mushrooms will put off a lot of liquid. Toss them occasionaly. Add salt to taste.


Slice the onion bulbs thinly across the grain.

When the liquid is about gone add two of the three onions.

Once the liquid is gone lower the temperature to medium and start warming up another pan for the greens.

Crumble the goat cheese and add it to the pan, stir it while it melts.

Add a tablespoon or so of olive oil and the remaining onion. Let the onion soften up just a bit and toss in the greens (if you only want to dirty one pan toss it all in the pan with the mushroom before you add the cheese). Cook just until the greens are soft, but not mushy.

Put the pasta in the pan with the mushrooms and toss to coat the noodles and distribute the mushrooms.

To serve place the pasta on a plate and dress it with the wilted greens.