Recipe: Mushroom Cream Sauce with Bacon

When you make something amazingly pure and delicious like homemade gnocchi you want to complement your efforts with a simple sauce. Gnocchi takes especially well to light cream sauces (and who doesn't like a light cream sauce?) so we jumped to an easy bacon and cream sauce that has become a trusty standby. This magic sauce takes almost no time or elbow grease to make, costs basically nothing and - if you're like us - you always have bacon, cream, and stock in the fridge, so it requires no shopping!   

Most of the time we add peas, but because no one sells frozen vegetables at the Union Square Market (why IS this?!) we decided to go with seasonal mushrooms. The Mitake and Shitake shrooms were looking and smelling particularly good this week, so we picked up about a half pound of each, figuring their earthy aroma would suit the potato-y clouds perfectly. And boy did it! We hope you enjoy as much as we do! 

Mushroom Cream Sauce with Bacon

+ 1 lb of mushrooms, cut in to meaty slices

+ 1 lb of bacon ends, cut into lardon, or thickly sliced bacon.

+ ¼ cup of cream

+ ½ cup stock

+ 1 sprig of fresh rosemary, roughly chopped

1. In a heavy skillet, on high heat, begin to brown the bacon. When the bacon starts to crisp up, add the mushrooms, and turn down to medium-high.

2. When the mushrooms start to brown and release their aroma (about 5 minutes) turn the heat further down to medium and add rosemary. After a few minutes pour in the stock and stir to release the browning bits off the pan. Let reduce for a few minutes.

3. Pour in the cream. Simmer for another couple minutes then mix in a pound of gnocchi or pasta.