You know how we love the website Food52?  They have some great pasta recipes posted Genius Recipes, August 13, 2013 and if you haven’t checked it out yet you really should.  It’s is a beautifully done website with lots of good recipe and gorgeous photos of food.  Recently they posted a recipe from Nigella Lawson entitled Linguine with Lemon, Garlic, and Thyme Mushrooms.  The recipe is basically a no cook thyme, lemon and garlic marinated mushrooms with pasta.  The whole kitchen smells fantastic if you use fresh thyme as it’s marinating.  I think it could marinate quite a while at room temperature.  The mushrooms pictured here only marinated for as long as it took the water to boil and the pasta to cook which is just 3 minutes.  Of course, we always like to put our Al Dente Pasta spin on things and this is how we interpreted the recipe.  We call it:

Pasta with Thyme Mushrooms

1/2 bag Al Dente Pasta, any cut or flavor

1 pint mushrooms, thinly sliced

1 tsp kosher salt

1 small clove garlic, minced

1/2 lemon, zested and juiced

3 Tbsp olive oil

4 sprigs fresh thyme, or 1 tsp drie

Fresh ground black pepper

1/4 c parsley, chopped for garnish is desired

1/4 c shaved parmesan cheese

In a large bowl, place sliced mushrooms.  Sprinkle with salt.  Add garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil, and thyme on top.  Mix well and allow to marinate at room temperature.  Cook the pasta according to package directions just 3 minutes, and drain, saving a half cup of the pasta water if you like a more saucy pasta.  Add hot pasta to marinated mushrooms and toss allowing the heat from the pasta to cook the mushroom mixture.  Add reserved pasta cooking water if you think it needs it.  Top with as much freshly ground black pepper as you like,  parsley for garnish if desired, or a little shaved parmesan cheese if desired.

This dish actually could be considered a pasta salad, if you refrigerate it.  We ate it for lunch immediately after it was all tossed together.  Perfect for the last few hot days of summer.