The pasta with chestnut cream, mushrooms, and bacon is a very flavorful and typically autumnal first course. A special sauce for a genuine, creamy, and easy-to-make pasta dish at home. The pasta is dressed with a delicate cream made from chestnuts and flavored with mushrooms. To complete, we added bacon which gives an even more rustic and inviting touch to this first course. Although both chestnuts and mushrooms are available all year round, they are representative ingredients of the autumn season along with pumpkin, walnuts and hazelnuts, grapes, and pomegranate. So now that we can find them fresh and of quality, let’s take advantage to prepare this delicious first course!
The preparation is very simple: we make a cream with boiled chestnuts, cream, milk, oil, salt, and pepper. Separately, we sauté the onion adding the mushrooms and bacon, and we dress the spaghetti with this sauce adding the chestnut cream.
A perfect dish for an autumn lunch, great to prepare with spaghetti but also with other types of long pasta like linguine or fettuccine. Perfect also for festive days, to pair with a second course like the creamy mushroom scaloppine and a dessert like the hazelnut cream cake. Now read the recipe for pasta with chestnut cream, mushrooms, and bacon, and if you try it, let us know what you think!
Also check out:
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 4 People
- Cooking methods: Stovetop, Boiling
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Autumn
Ingredients to prepare Pasta with Chestnut Cream, Mushrooms, and Bacon
- 11 oz spaghetti
- 10.5 oz mushrooms
- 7 oz chestnuts, boiled
- cup heavy cream
- 3 tbsp + 1 tsp tbsp milk
- extra virgin olive oil
- 1 onion
- chopped parsley (or basil)
- salt
- pepper
Tools to prepare Pasta with Chestnut Cream, Mushrooms, and Bacon
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Immersion Blender
- 1 Pan
- 1 Wooden Spoon
- 1 Pot
How to prepare Pasta with Chestnut Cream, Mushrooms, and Bacon
Prepare the pasta with chestnut cream, mushrooms, and bacon by first boiling the chestnuts if you are not using pre-cooked ones. Put them in a pot with plenty of cold water and a bay leaf and let them cook for 40 minutes from the boil. Drain and let them cool slightly.
Peel the chestnuts, removing the skin as well, and place them on a plate, adding the cream and milk. Blend with the immersion blender to obtain a cream, season with salt and pepper, and also add the oil.
Slice a peeled onion and sauté it in a pan or skillet with the oil. Add the pre-cleaned and chopped mushrooms. You can use any mushrooms you prefer, either mixed mushrooms or porcini or champignon, and you can also use frozen mushrooms.
Cook the mushrooms for 5 minutes over medium heat, then add the diced bacon and let it cook for about ten minutes.
Meanwhile, in a large pot, bring plenty of salted water to a boil and cook the spaghetti. Drain them al dente and pour them into the pan with mushrooms and bacon.
Add the chestnut cream and mix quickly to combine, then also add some fresh chopped parsley or basil.
Serve the pasta with chestnut cream, mushrooms, and bacon hot, completing with more oil and pepper.
Simo and Cicci recommend
You can store the pasta for a couple of days tightly closed in an airtight container in the fridge. You can store the prepared chestnut cream in the fridge for a couple of days and then use it to dress the pasta.
As already mentioned in the recipe, you can use any type of mushrooms you prefer, even frozen.
You can replace the bacon with diced pancetta or speck.
For a vegetarian version, omit the bacon and replace the cream and milk with soy or oat cream, coconut milk, and for milk with almond or oat drink with no added sugars.
You can use a different long pasta format from spaghetti like linguine, bucatini, even in a gluten-free version, or you can use rice, buckwheat, or oat pasta.
