Mushroom Pesto Pasta

Ingredients

• 400g fresh fettuccine
• 200g mushrooms, trimmed and sliced
• 200g cherry tomatoes
• 75g basil pesto
• 1 cup cream
• 30g parmesan, grated
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 Tbsp olive oil — staple
• (veg side) 1 head cos lettuce, washed and torn
• (veg side) 1 cucumber, sliced
• (veg side) 2 tomatoes, cut into wedges
• (veg side) 1 carrot, grated
• (veg side) dressing: 2 Tbsp olive oil + 1 Tbsp vinegar or lemon juice — staple

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Add the sliced mushrooms and sauté a few minutes until browned.
2. Add the cherry tomatoes and cook, stirring, a few minutes more.
3. Stir in the garlic and fry 1 minute, then add the pesto and cream. Simmer a few minutes until the sauce thickens and the tomatoes start to burst.
4. Meanwhile cook the fettuccine in a large pot of salted boiling water per the packet, then drain, reserving a little pasta water.
5. Stir the grated parmesan through the sauce until combined, then add the drained fettuccine and toss, loosening with pasta water if needed.
6. Side salad: while the pasta boils, toss the torn cos, cucumber, tomato wedges and grated carrot in your biggest bowl with the oil and vinegar; season.
7. Season the pasta to taste and serve immediately with extra parmesan and the salad alongside.

Notes

- Vegetarian as written (16g protein/serve — mostly the fettuccine, cream and parmesan). - To make it a protein main under the house rule (40-50g protein per serve): add 600g sliced chicken thigh, browned in the pan before the mushrooms and returned at step 5. That lands ~44g protein and ~890 cal per serve. Chicken breast is denser — 350g does the same job at ~800 cal. Add another 1/4 cup cream if the sauce won't coat the extra meat. - Check the pesto label if it must stay vegetarian — most jarred basil pesto contains parmesan made with animal rennet. - Dried fettuccine works; use 350g dry and cook it a minute short of the packet time since it finishes in the sauce. - Get real colour on the mushrooms before anything wet goes in, or the sauce tastes flat. - Veg/staples sweep: the pasta itself only carried ~100g veg/serve, so the house side salad (cos, cucumber, tomato, grated carrot, oil + vinegar) was added as its own step — about +50 cal / +2g protein and roughly 150g more veg per serve. Fresh garlic lost its "staple" marker and gained a search hint.