This Week in Pasta

Although the Pacific Northwest is justifiably famous for its natural abundance, an easily foraged cornucopia of wild fruits, herbs, roots, and fungi, I took the easy way out and bought a half-pound of Black Trumpet mushrooms at the farmers' market.

After a fairly tedious process of washing them, splitting them open, and removing the pine needles from their center stalks, I took the tough bases and simmered them in water for a stock, and set the Trumpets aside while I made the pasta.

For the filling I grabbed some cheap button and crimini mushrooms from the store, chopped them up fine and roasted them with garlic and plenty of salt, and then mixed in some sauteed spinach, ricotta cheese, and lemon juice.

The tangy and salty pop of the filling was tamed by the rich, earthy, almost black broth redolent of a funky forest floor after the rain, reduced and enriched with a pat of butter. With the Trumpets sauteed and scattered on top, and a $1 farmers' market white truffle shaved over that, it was mushroom on mushroom coated in mushroom and filled with, you guessed it, mushroom.