Recipe: Garlic Mazithra

I've been a bit of a bum this week.  I'm still getting over being sick, my sewing machine is gone (hence not being able to complete many projects to show you) and I think I got food poisoning a couple days ago.  It was awful.  I'm fine now, so I can stomach looking at food to post this recipe.

This pasta dish is to. die. for.  It is a popular dish at The Old Spaghetti Factory, and is divine.  The last time I ordered it, mushrooms and I weren't entirely on speaking terms so I had them removed, but this most recent trip I took just confirmed the error of my ways where mushrooms are involved.  

What you need to recreate this dish is...are you ready?  Pasta.  Butter.  Bacon.  Myzithra Cheese.  Mushrooms.  Garlic. 

*THUD*

I've fallen and I can't get up.

Be still, my beating heart.

I totally forgot the pasta...in fact Nick was out at the store getting it while I took the pic. 

Anyway, I'd like to apologize for the lack of pictures, but this dish works up pretty fast, Nick was occupying the kids, and I didn't want to burn my butter.  Here's the recipe, quick and dirty.

12oz of spaghetti (about 3/4 of a box)

8 oz mushrooms

5 slices of bacon

1/2 cup of butter

2-6 cloves of garlic (depends on how much you like it)

Myzithra Cheese (just enough to grate on top)

First and foremost, I cheated a little with the bacon (cover your ears, bacon purists.)  We use already cooked bacon that you just heat up in the microwave.  It's a lot less messy than cooking raw bacon and since this girl can't keep from getting grease/oil stains on her clothing because she can't remember to wear her apron while cooking, it just ensures that I won't be walking around naked because I don't have any clean clothes to wear.  So I'm really doing you a favor.   However you cook your bacon, do it, then chop it up into slightly-smaller-than-bite-size pieces.

Cook pasta according to package directions, drain and set aside.  

Meanwhile, brown your butter.  Basically you just melt butter in a pan on low-medium heat until it has a nutty aroma and is a golden amber color.  Pour butter into another dish trying to leave the sediment that will gather on the bottom as it cools, or use cheesecloth to strain.

Sautee mushrooms (I like using Baby Bellas, also known as Cremini) with lots of garlic (I used 5 cloves, you can use as much as you want) until mushrooms are browned - about 7-8 minutes on med-high heat.    This is why there are no pictures. This all goes really fast and you don't want to screw it up.   I used this source when first learning how to brown butter - it was very helpful.

When everything is done cooking, throw it all together, and finely grate some of the Myzithra over it.  Use more than you would Parmesan, but not too much, you want to be able to taste everything in the dish.  

I would seriously consider investing in a Life Alert system prior to cooking this dish, you know, just in case you fall off your chair or something.  Enjoy!