The Creamiest Wild Mushroom Pasta

Plus: Abi Balingit on Lunch Therapy, Brunch at Gage & Tollner, and How to Revive a Frozen Meatball.

Hey everyone,

We got our Covid vaccines along with flu shots yesterday and felt totally fine… until night hit and then I woke up with the most terrible chills and Craig woke up feeling awful too. Now we both feel fine again and we’re glad that we only had to suffer for one night instead of a week or two with actual Covid or the flu.

Thankfully, I had lots of energy yesterday afternoon and I did two big things: (1) I made a creamy mushroom pasta with homemade egg noodles (more on that in a sec) and (2) I revived my podcast!

I actually recorded this interview with Abi Balingit, the author of the fabulous new Filipino American dessert book Mayumu, right before we left L.A. I feel so bad that I kept it locked away all that time; we were so busy settling in, that I just never got around to it, but now I’m ready to resume my role as an unlicensed lunch therapist here on the east coast. (Look out, Orna!)

Our talk covers everything from the charity work Abi did during the pandemic to the Filipino food her parents cooked for her growing up in California and that she took for granted. We also discuss Arizona Iced Tea, Capri Sun, Twinkies, Ring Dings, and all other kinds of sweet American foods. You can listen anywhere you listen to podcasts or right here on Spotify:

Now for that creamy mushroom pasta. I bought a pound of assorted mushrooms at the farmer’s market yesterday: we’re talking oyster, cremini, lion’s mane (they’re so cute!), maitake, you name it. Then I put them in a pot with a ton of butter and olive oil.