Shrimp of the Woods Fra-Diavolo (2024)

5 from 5 votes

• 8 oz dried linguine preferably an imported brand like Rusticella d'Abruzzo
• 16 oz can imported Italian San Marzano tomatoes
• Kosher salt and pepper to taste
• ½ teaspoon Crushed red pepper or more to taste
• 2 ounces unsalted butter
• ⅛ cup extra virgin olive oil
• ⅛ cup grapeseed or vegetable oil
• 4 cloves garlic sliced
• 1 lb aborted entoloma mushrooms trimmed, cleaned, and rinsed if neccessary
• ½ cup dry white wine
• 2 tablespoon flat leaf parsley stemmed and roughly chopped
• Parmesan cheese to garnish (optional)

• Heat a pasta pot filled with lightly salted water.

• Remove the tomatoes from the can and place into a nonreactive bowl. Squeeze the seeds out of the tomatoes into a strainer, reserving the juice. Discard the seeds. When the tomatoes have all been seeded, chop them roughly and recombine with their strained juice.

• Quarter the entolomas or halve if they're small. Heat the oils in 10 in high sided saute pan. Add the entolomas to the pan and season with salt and pepper, cooking over medium heat and stirring occasionally until lightly golden and no juice if any remains in the pan from the mushrooms, about 10 minutes.

• Move the entolomas to one side of the pan, add the sliced garlic and a little more oil if the mushrooms soaked it up, then reduce the heat to medium low, and cook until golden brown, but not burnt, about 4-5 minutes more. Add the crushed red pepper and stir for 10 seconds. Deglaze the pan with the white wine and reduce until the pan is nearly dry. Add the tomatoes and reserved juice, increase the heat to medium and cook until the liquid is reduced by half, about 5 minutes.

• Meanwhile, cook the linguine in that salted water until al dente. Drain the linguine.

• Add the linguine, parsley and butter to the pan and cook for two minutes more, tossing to emulsify the butter.

• At this point you may need to add some water to the pan in tablespoon increments if the pan gets dry and there is no sauce. When the pasta is wet and glossy, Double check the seasoning for salt and your chili tolerance.

• Divide the pasta evenly between four preheated dinner bowls, leaving the tomato-entoloma sauce in the pan. Top bowl of pasta with equal portions of the sauce and serve immediately with the parmesan if using.