Lemony Linguini in Mushroom Sauce

This a good and healthy recipe for all those who yearn to have the “white” sauce pasta and yet want to avoid the creamy fattiness of it – there have been many approaches to make a less fatty white sauce, however, every time we go out to eat and have desired Fettucini Alfredo or other white sauce pastas, you come back loaded in more ways than one – guilt being the strongest in my case – So taking the law (or in this case ) ladle in my own hand, I whipped up a lemony, zesty, linguini pasta with canned mushroom soup for the sauce. I used a cup of 1% milk and ½ cup of buttermilk to make the soup and add my lovely herbs and spices to it.  It is amazing what a little lemon and zest can do to another otherwise simple pasta - gives it the gourmet effect, if you know what I am saying :) Here goes!

Ingredients

1 pack of linguini (serves 5-6 amply)

1 can of mushroom soup

1 cup of milk

½ cup of buttermilk

1 cup of chopped mushrooms

Zest of 1 lemon

1tbsp lemon juice

1 Sprig of basil (i used some dry basil as well)

1 crushed red chili (optional)

3 cloves of garlic

3 tsp of olive oil

Grated parmesan to top

Preparation

Boil the linguini al dente with 1 tsp of olive oil and salt

In a saucepan, heat 2 tsp of olive oil. Crush garlic into it and add the diced mushrooms and sauté for a minute – if you want the red chili, now is a good time to crush it into the oil.

Add some salt to the mushrooms

Open your can of mushroom sauce and scoop contents into the saucepan

Add the milk and stir in the two together

After stirring the pot, add the buttermilk and mix it in well

Once the sauce is boiled, add the basil and keep closed

Now drain your linguini and set it back in the pot that you boiled it in

Add the sauce and mix in well.

Now your pasta is ready to be poured into your serving dish

Once poured, add the lemon juice and sprinkle the lemon zest and mix into the pasta

Top the pasta with grated parmesan and ground pepper either in the serving dish or on individual plates

Enjoy the experience J