Sweet Success!

Okay, I'm having a Springtime when I have to be very patient for everything that comes my direction: the job, the morels, the home improvements. That's all right, though, because I'm not a greedy person, nor am I edgy about things that I'm expecting. Maybe it's maturity and the certainty that all things will line up the way they are supposed to, when they are supposed to...maybe.

I made a very delicious Marsala wild mushroom sauce to go over linguine that was just the thing to celebrate an evening with friends. Since I figure most of you know how to make a good pasta, I won't tell you how...(let's just assume that you're cooking the pasta while you're making this sauce). Make about half the box of pasta to go along with this amount of sauce - or find more morels and increase amounts accordingly. Good incentive to keep hunting.

Marsala Wild Mushroom Sauce

8 oz. Sliced Baby Portabellas
More Morels than that: cleaned, quartered length-wise and sliced across.
2 cloves of chopped garlic
3 T. butter
1/4 cup Marsala
1 t. Tarragon

Whisk together:
2 T. Light sour cream
1/4 cup milk
2 T. flour

salt and ground pepper to taste

Melt butter and saute portabellas for a little bit, then add the garlic and morels. Stirring occassionally, let this mixture heat - but not long enough to be browning the garlic. Before that happens, add the Marsala and Tarragon, then cover to steep for a minute or two with the heat on medium low to evaporate the alcohol, but not overcook everything.

Uncover and stir, add some ground pepper and pour in the whisked mixture, stirring it into the pan juices. It shouldn't take long to thicken, but you can adjust the thinness by adding more milk, light sour cream or Marsala - whichever flavor you think needs to be brought forward.

Toss sauce into pasta and serve immediately. If you'd like to include some vegetables, I'm sure this sauce would take nicely to asparagas, broccoli, spinach, artichoke hearts, or zucchini.

By the way, the dot at the bottom of the plate in the middle picture is this guy. He was hitchhiking on one of the bigger morels...