4.008 Tagliatelle in Oyster-Picada Cream Sauce with Oyster Mushrooms

Cycle 4 – Item 8

13 (Sun) January 2013

Tagliatelle in Oyster-Picada Cream Sauce with Oyster Mushrooms

3.5

by me

at home

-Oksu, Seongdong, Seoul, Republic of Korea-

with W and DJ

Just a last-minute/ad-libbed/whatever’s-in-the-fridge/quick-fix dish.

Contemplating what to do with a handful of raw oysters, I realized that I’d never seen nor even heard of a pasta cream sauce involving oysters, whereas every other seafood variety is commonly used; I didn’t see why oysters couldn’t be just as good.  Concerned that the oyster flavor might be overwhelming in plain cream, I added cubes of sofrito and picada, for substance.  To round things out, if only in terms of semantics, I tossed in some oyster mushrooms.

It turned out quite well.  The bittersweet brininess of the oysters paired perfectly with the heavy cream, balanced out by the touches of caramelized tomatoes/onions and toasted nuts/herbs in the aromatics.  Intense, complex, sophisticated (if I may be so bold), probably the best cream sauce that I’ve ever made.  The tagliatelle contributed a buttery softness.  The oyster mushrooms didn’t really do much.  An instant classic, could be a new signature dish if I liked either oysters or cream sauces, which I don’t.

The inclusion of the picada turned the sauce Swamp Thing green, but the subsequent infusion of cream turned it back to a more appetizing yellowish hue.

(See also GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)

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