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This is a lot of pan work before you can shove it in the oven for the final burn (think liftoff), so remember to preheat your oven to 350F prior to putting it in the oven. You will also need a glass or corningware casserole dish, greased liberally with butter, so prepare that sometime before also.
Ingredients
Very dry (00) sherry, 1/2 to 1 cup
Home made vegetable stock made with bay leaf, 2 to 3 cups
White mushrooms, sliced, about 6 cups when sliced
Yellow onion, diced, about a baseball size when peeled
Celery, two stalks trimmed and diced
Carrot, two small medium peeled and diced
Garlic, one clove minced
Dried Thyme, 1/4 teaspoon bruised
Spaghetti noodles made from brown rice, dry bundle about 1+1/2 inch diameter
Corn starch, about 3 heaped tablespoons
Gruyere cheese, cave aged, 1 X 2 X 3 inch slab grated
Parmesan cheese, 1 X 1 X 1 inch slab grated
Cream cheese, about 1/2 cup
Frozen peas, about 1 cup
Salt & Pepper to taste
Saltine crackers, crushed, about 10 crackers
Store bought dry bread crumbs, about 1/2 cup
Store bought grated parmesan cheese, about 1/2 cup
Butter to rub into the cracker+crumb mix, about 2 tablespoons
Method
Early, start pot of water for stock. Add bay leaves and all the frozen vegetable peelings you have been saving (onions peels, garlic paper, pepper ribs, etc etc). Also add the vegetable trimmings from this dish as you produce them. Start early and simmer for a couple hours.
As you begin, start the water for your noodles. Add a bay leaf. Bring to a boil and then turn off and cover, and allow the bay leaf to infuse the water.
Add butter to a pan and throw in all the sliced white mushrooms. Sweat them over medium low heat until they have wilted, released all their moisture, and most of the moisture is gone. Reserve mushrooms. To same pan (do not clean), add more butter and diced onion, and sauté until translucent but not browned. Add diced celery and carrot. Saute until carrot softening. Add minced garlic, and freshly crushed thyme. Stir and allow the garlic to become fragrant, but only just, and then return the mushrooms to the pan.
Once the mushrooms are hot again, add two ladles of strained vegetable stock. Allow to begin to bubble. Add sherry. Add three or four more ladles of vegetable stock and allow it to begin to bubble.
Sometime around now, prepare your noodles.
Add cold water to cornstarch and mix until completely smooth. Add some of the broth from the mushroom pan to the mix to temper it, and then pour the whole cornstarch mixture into the mushroom mixture. Stir constantly and add more vegetable stock if it thickens too much.
Once mushroom mixture is bubbling again, add the grated gruyere and parmesan and stir until melted. Add cream cheese in blobs and stir until all melted and mixed in. Add the frozen peas and drained noodles and mix well. Taste and add any salt and pepper needed. Pour into a greased casserole.
Crush the saltines finely and add the dry bread crumbs and store bought parmesan. Add butter in small blobs and then use your clean fingers to rub the butter into the mixture until a fine greasy meal is formed. Spread uniformly on top of casserole, covering to all edges.
You may place it in the oven now, or cover it with plastic wrap and store it in the fridge until needed. It will probably freeze well, but you would then hold back the crumb topping and apply it when thawed again.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350F, and bake on middle shelf for 40 to 50 minutes, or until top bubbling and browned. Allow it to rest out of the oven for about 10 minutes before serving.
We served it with sweet potato oven fries, brussel sprouts, cranberry sauce, sliced heirloom tomatoes and a token nibble of ham for the meatatarians. It reheats marvelously next day in the microwave.
As you can see, I am not anchored to a recipe. This is what I did after I tried a regular turkey tetrazzini recipe in which I substituted fake meat, and then made up my mind how to improve it to our tastes. I decided that store bought grated parmesan is useless, and that the crust was too dry, and that the fake meat did it no favours. Going all out for mushrooms meant I could add a more robust cheese. My uncle is celiac, so I was quite pleased with the brown rice spaghetti in here, since I had previously used a whole wheat pasta and they end up being very similar in this dish.
So, as you can see, this is a smell and watch and taste as you go process, and if you feel it needs another shot of sherry - do it. :)
Oh yes. I cannot stress enough how valuable home made vegetable stock is for vegetarian recipes. In fact, I think water is better than store bought vegetable stock or cubes. I made a full pot of stock while I was at it and now have some frozen for later. :)
Ingredients
Very dry (00) sherry, 1/2 to 1 cup
Home made vegetable stock made with bay leaf, 2 to 3 cups
White mushrooms, sliced, about 6 cups when sliced
Yellow onion, diced, about a baseball size when peeled
Celery, two stalks trimmed and diced
Carrot, two small medium peeled and diced
Garlic, one clove minced
Dried Thyme, 1/4 teaspoon bruised
Spaghetti noodles made from brown rice, dry bundle about 1+1/2 inch diameter
Corn starch, about 3 heaped tablespoons
Gruyere cheese, cave aged, 1 X 2 X 3 inch slab grated
Parmesan cheese, 1 X 1 X 1 inch slab grated
Cream cheese, about 1/2 cup
Frozen peas, about 1 cup
Salt & Pepper to taste
Saltine crackers, crushed, about 10 crackers
Store bought dry bread crumbs, about 1/2 cup
Store bought grated parmesan cheese, about 1/2 cup
Butter to rub into the cracker+crumb mix, about 2 tablespoons
Method
Early, start pot of water for stock. Add bay leaves and all the frozen vegetable peelings you have been saving (onions peels, garlic paper, pepper ribs, etc etc). Also add the vegetable trimmings from this dish as you produce them. Start early and simmer for a couple hours.
As you begin, start the water for your noodles. Add a bay leaf. Bring to a boil and then turn off and cover, and allow the bay leaf to infuse the water.
Add butter to a pan and throw in all the sliced white mushrooms. Sweat them over medium low heat until they have wilted, released all their moisture, and most of the moisture is gone. Reserve mushrooms. To same pan (do not clean), add more butter and diced onion, and sauté until translucent but not browned. Add diced celery and carrot. Saute until carrot softening. Add minced garlic, and freshly crushed thyme. Stir and allow the garlic to become fragrant, but only just, and then return the mushrooms to the pan.
Once the mushrooms are hot again, add two ladles of strained vegetable stock. Allow to begin to bubble. Add sherry. Add three or four more ladles of vegetable stock and allow it to begin to bubble.
Sometime around now, prepare your noodles.
Add cold water to cornstarch and mix until completely smooth. Add some of the broth from the mushroom pan to the mix to temper it, and then pour the whole cornstarch mixture into the mushroom mixture. Stir constantly and add more vegetable stock if it thickens too much.
Once mushroom mixture is bubbling again, add the grated gruyere and parmesan and stir until melted. Add cream cheese in blobs and stir until all melted and mixed in. Add the frozen peas and drained noodles and mix well. Taste and add any salt and pepper needed. Pour into a greased casserole.
Crush the saltines finely and add the dry bread crumbs and store bought parmesan. Add butter in small blobs and then use your clean fingers to rub the butter into the mixture until a fine greasy meal is formed. Spread uniformly on top of casserole, covering to all edges.
You may place it in the oven now, or cover it with plastic wrap and store it in the fridge until needed. It will probably freeze well, but you would then hold back the crumb topping and apply it when thawed again.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350F, and bake on middle shelf for 40 to 50 minutes, or until top bubbling and browned. Allow it to rest out of the oven for about 10 minutes before serving.
We served it with sweet potato oven fries, brussel sprouts, cranberry sauce, sliced heirloom tomatoes and a token nibble of ham for the meatatarians. It reheats marvelously next day in the microwave.
As you can see, I am not anchored to a recipe. This is what I did after I tried a regular turkey tetrazzini recipe in which I substituted fake meat, and then made up my mind how to improve it to our tastes. I decided that store bought grated parmesan is useless, and that the crust was too dry, and that the fake meat did it no favours. Going all out for mushrooms meant I could add a more robust cheese. My uncle is celiac, so I was quite pleased with the brown rice spaghetti in here, since I had previously used a whole wheat pasta and they end up being very similar in this dish.
So, as you can see, this is a smell and watch and taste as you go process, and if you feel it needs another shot of sherry - do it. :)
Oh yes. I cannot stress enough how valuable home made vegetable stock is for vegetarian recipes. In fact, I think water is better than store bought vegetable stock or cubes. I made a full pot of stock while I was at it and now have some frozen for later. :)
