Simple homemade white sauce with garlic, wine, chicken stock, parmesan, and puffball mushroom powder.
This will serve 8, so consider cutting it in half if you want to serve smaller portions
Makes 3.5 cups
1.5ozdried puffball or other mushrooms mushroomscrumbled, or dried puffball powder (this is roughly 2 cups of crumbled mushrooms and mushroom powder)
⅓cupdry white wineplus a splash for finishing
2cupsheavy cream or half and half
3tablespoonsall purpose flour
1.5+.5 cups homemade chicken stockgood and strong, separated
½teaspoonkosher saltplus more to taste
3large garlic clovescrushed with the back of a knife and chopped roughly, plus another 2 cloves for finishing
4+1 Tablespoons unsalted butterseparated
3ozgrated parmesanor to taste, plus more for finishing
Serving
Fresh lemon juicefor finishing
Cooked fettucine or tagliatellestart with 1 lb
6ozlightly blanchedcooked broccoli, cut into pieces to fit on a fork
Instructions
Sauce
In a 2 quart saucepan, bring the puffball powder and ½ cup stock to a simmer until the pan is nearly dry. Add the butter and cook until the puffball mass is sizzling and hot, about 3-4 minutes.
Add the garlic and stir, cook a minute more, add the flour and stir, cook for another minute, then add the wine and stir vigorously until thick. The mixture will tighten up quickly.
Add the half and half, along with the chicken stock and salt, and bring to a simmer, whisking constantly. It will look clumpy-that’s ok. When the mixture is hot and steaming, cook for a minute or two more, then transfer to a blender, adding the parmesan, or buzz with a handblender, which can be less smooth.
Pureeing
Puree the mixture, starting on low and moving up to high speed, until the sauce is velvety and smooth.
Taste and adjust the seasoning of the sauce for salt and /or parmesan and adjust as needed (a teeny tiny pinch of cayenne can be nice too) then pour into a container like a mason jar, put on a lid, cool on the counter or in a container like a larger pot filled with cold water, then refrigerate. The sauce will firm as it cools but will come back to life when reheated. It will last for 3-4 days. It can be frozen, but needs to be re-pureed after thawing to emulsify.
Serving
To finish and serve with pasta, for each 4 oz of cooked noodles, use about 3-4 oz of sauce. For ease of executing, I’m writing this to serve 4. You will have leftover sauce.
Mince the remaining 2 cloves of garlic, then cook with the remaining tablespoon of butter in a large, wide pan. When the garlic is aromatic, but not browning, add the splash of wine, then add 2 cups of puffball sauce. Add the pasta, broccoli if using, and mix, adding a splash or two of pasta water if the mixture looks tight.
Taste the seasoning for salt, adjust as needed until it tastes good to you then, off the heat, add a small handful of parmesan, a dash of fresh lemon juice to taste, and the fresh thyme if using. Divide the pasta between 4 heated bowls and serve with extra parmesan on the side.