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    Home » Wild Mushroom Recipes

    Pasta alla Checca with Wild Mushrooms

    Published: Oct 1, 2022 Modified: Apr 15, 2023 Author: Alan Bergo

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    I bounced around Italian kitchens for years and I picked up a few tricks and special dishes. Cappellini alla Checca with Wild Mushrooms is a contender for my all-time favorite pasta dishes.

    Capellini alla checca with wild mushrooms (17)
    Fresh tomatoes, wild mushrooms, and plenty of melting chunks of mozzarella make this one of my favorite pastas. 

    This capellini pasta alla checca recipe was on the menu at Trattoria Da Vinci where I learned to make it from Chef Angelo Volpicelli. Angelo was from Lazio, so he specialized in Roman cuisine where this recipe comes from. It wasn't just the guests who liked it though, it was also the staff favorite.

    hedghog, black trumpet, blewit, red chanterelle, and lobster mushrooms
    A few mushrooms from this week. Hedgehogs, black trumpets, lobster, red chanterelle, and one blewit.

    After we made pastas for the staff, we'd make food for ourselves, and I'd wager I ate a bowl of checca at least twice a week. 

    Dicing roma tomatoes
    Plum tomatoes are important. They contain less water than others. Cut the tomatoes into dice.

    How to Make it

    At the end of the day this is nothing more than thin noodles in the style of a spaghetti pomodoro. The dried pasta's dressed with a simple sauce of diced ripe tomatoes or cherry tomatoes, garlic, tomato sauce, basil and fresh mozzarella. 

    cutting up hedgehog mushrooms
    Black trumpet mushrooms peeled into strips ready for cooking

    There were add-ons too. Toss in some shrimp, a handful of rendered pancetta nuggets, or, my favorite: a spoonful of a juicy mushroom ragu scented with dried porcini.

    Wild Mushroom Ragu with Dried Boletes Recipe
     A spoonful mushroom ragu was how we added mushrooms to the pasta to order.

    Angelos mushroom ragu is a separate thing, and was streamlined for restaurant service so I skip it here and use fresh wild mushrooms instead (if you want to try it sometime the recipe's here).

    cooking wild mushrooms in a pan for a pasta sauce
    Black trumpets are wonderful here. 

    Plating 

    Making the dish as I describe will teach you one of the most important things about making and serving pasta at home: twirling the noodles and putting the sauce on top when you plate.

    plating pasta by twirling the noodles
    Twirling the noodles when you plate is important.

    This is probably the biggest difference between how pasta is plated at a restaurant compared to how people enjoy pasta at home. Once you try it, you may never go back. 

    Cooking black trumpet mushrooms and garlic for pasta in a pan
    Start out cooking the mushrooms, then add sliced garlic.
    cooking sliced garlic until it turns light brown in a pan
    Cook the garlic until it's golden around the edges.
    adding fresh tomatoes to mushrooms and garlic in a pan
    Add fresh tomatoes and cook for a bit.
    adding homemade tomato sauce to the pan
    Add homemade tomato sauce and simmer.
    adding capellini pasta to the pan
    Add the cooked noodles.
    twisting pasta with a pair of tongs
    Simmer for a bit, then twirl the noodles and plate.

    Adapting the recipe 

    At the restaurant we made this with capellini di angelo, or very thing angel hair. In the dish pictured here I use regular capellini, which is a little more forgiving and eats more like spaghetti.

    Ideally you'll use this as a sauce for long noodles, although occasionally for buffets I think we used penne.

    Related Posts

    Black Trumpet Mushrooms

    Black Trumpet Mushroom Recipes

    Chanterelle and Black Trumpet Carbonara

    Candied Black Trumpet Mushrooms

    Capellini alla checca with wild mushrooms (17)
    Capellini alla checca with wild mushrooms (17)
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe
    5 from 2 votes

    Capellini Pasta alla Checca with Mushrooms

    Capellini or spaghetti with a sauce of fresh tomatoes, basil, fresh mozzarella, and wild mushrooms. Serves 1 hungry person as an entrée or two as a pasta course
    Prep Time10 minutes mins
    Cook Time15 minutes mins
    Total Time25 minutes mins
    Course: Main Course
    Cuisine: Italian
    Keyword: Black Trumpet Mushrooms, Pasta
    Servings: 2 Servings
    Calories: 411kcal
    Author: Alan Bergo
    Cost: 10

    Equipment

    • 1 10 inch saute pan
    • 1 Pasta pot

    Ingredients

    Sauce

    • 1.5 tablespoons cooking oil
    • 3 oz wild mushrooms preferably with some black trumpets
    • ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
    • 1-2 large cloves garlic thinly sliced
    • Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
    • Pinch of dried oregano I use dried bee balm
    • 6 oz (2 medium) roma tomatoes diced
    • 6 oz ¾ cup homemade tomato sauce

    Serving and finishing

    • 3 large leaves of fresh basil torn
    • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
    • 1 oz fresh mozzarella diced
    • 1 tablespoon grated parmesan
    • 3 oz dried capellini, capellini di angelo, or spaghetti or 6 oz cooked pasta

    Instructions

    Build the sauce

    • In a 10 inch saute pan, heat the cooking oil, then add the mushrooms and cook for a few minutes over high heat until wilted. Add the salt and stir.
    • Push the mushrooms to the side of the pan, turn the heat to medium-low, add a drizzle of oil and the garlic. Cook the garlic slices until they’re just starting to brown around the edges, minding the heat and being careful not to burn them.
    • Bring a pot of salted water to a boil, add the pasta and cook al dente.
    • Add the diced tomatoes, oregano, crushed red pepper flakes, another pinch of salt, and cook for a few minutes over high heat to evaporate some of the liquid.
    • Add the tomato sauce and simmer a few minutes more. Add the hot pasta, toss with the tomato mixture and heat through. Double check the seasoning for salt and pepper and adjust as needed, then toss, add the extra virgin olive oil, basil and mozzarella, remove from the heat and toss again.
    • Add a splash of pasta water if the pan gets dry.

    Plating

    • Using tongs, twirl the pasta and remove to a preheated pasta bowl. Twirl the pasta again in the bowl to give it some height, then pour the mushroom sauce from the pan over the top. Garnish with a few basil leaves, a little more extra virgin olive oil if you want, and some grated parm. Serve hot.

    Video

    Notes

    When finishing the pasta 

    It's important to have everything ready to go when you plate, and to toss the pasta off the heat or in a bowl to avoid cooking the mozzrella. 

    Nutrition

    Serving: 6oz | Calories: 411kcal | Carbohydrates: 42g | Protein: 13g | Fat: 23g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 13g | Trans Fat: 0.04g | Cholesterol: 13mg | Sodium: 836mg | Potassium: 700mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 1194IU | Vitamin C: 19mg | Calcium: 125mg | Iron: 2mg
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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Jay

      June 16, 2023 at 3:08 pm

      Hello Allen,

      In your post of Oct. 1 '22 "Pasta alla Checca with Wild Mushrooms" you mentioned you used bee balm in place of oregano. I'm in central Texas and M. citreodora (aka Lemon Bee Balm) is prolific here. I've found it to be a delightful herb. It would make a very good oregano substitute with a je ne sais quoi and a latent mustard character in either a marinade, rub or other applications.

      I'm curious what variety you used (M. didyma?) and how it may differ from M. citreodora if you're familiar?

      Also, I'm curious, though it's not pressing, how mounding pasta changes the way one eats it? I usually just toss the pasta in whatever sauce and plate. Is that wrong? (I cook for one and do more grub than haute cuisine:)

      I appreciate your website and posts.

      Thanks

      -- jay

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        June 16, 2023 at 3:24 pm

        Hi Jay, good question. I use Monarda fistulosa. M. didyma has a different flavor and I only use the flowers. I don’t know how the lemon bee balm would work-try it and let me know.

        As for mounding the pasta, I worked under a number of Italian chefs and this is how it’s done. Pouring the sauce over the pasta at the end from the pan after mounding it encourages an even distribution of ingredients.

        Reply
        • Jay

          June 18, 2023 at 12:29 pm

          Given the 100+ heat we're having, my lemon bee balm has set or is setting seed. I'll scatter the seen in a retired garden area more convenient to the house and renew experimentation next spring.

          Thanks for your information.

          -- jay

          Reply
    2. Ellen Anderson

      October 01, 2022 at 11:07 am

      This looks great! Hopefully my trumpets are doing to show up soon so I can try. My question—would it be terrible to do this with canned plum tomatoes? Also how about using dried trumpets?
      Thanks for all of your posts!

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        October 06, 2022 at 8:50 am

        Fresh tomatoes only for this. But you can try. It's fine to use dried trumpets, but I would reserve their liquid for a different purpose as it will discolor the pasta.

        Reply
    5 from 2 votes (2 ratings without comment)

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