Shroom Pasta - Recipe Challenge Week 2

Week 2 of my recipe challenge brings us to the most recent Rachel Ray magazine.  The difference from last week?  Well, there don't seem to be any "light" recipes here.  In fact, doing my shopping for the week, I ended up with six different cheeses and some ricotta.  I better step up the workouts this week for sure!

Our first stop this week is pasta in a mushroom sauce.  Very, very good.  And the kids were clueless as to the mushrooms and ate it up.  My son had seconds!

2 cups veggie stock (or chicken)
handful dried mushrooms
1 lb pappardelle pasta
3 tbsp butter
3/4 lb cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 large bay leaf
1 small bunch kale
4 shallots, chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
fresh grated nutmeg
3/4 marsala wine
1 cup light cream
grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese

Place stock and dried mushrooms in a saucepan and bring to a low boil.  Lower heat and reconstitute.  Remove mushrooms with a slotted spoon and chop.

Bring pasta pot of water to boil.  Add salt.  Cook pasta to al dente (Note: since I could not find whole wheat pappardelle, I used only 1/2 lb of that and 1/2 pound of whole wheat rotini).  Drain, reserving some cooking water.

Heat butter in large skillet.  Add cremini mushrooms and bay leaf.  Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 8 minutes.  Add kale, shallots and garlic.  Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.  Cook for another 7 minutes then stir in the wine (Note: I could not find marsala at my store, do I just used a random red).  Add reconstituted mushrooms and all but 1/4 cup of mushroom stock.  Stir in the cream and cook to reduce and thicken.

Toss the pasta with the sauce, adding reserved pasta water if sauce is too thick.  Top with grated cheese.

It doesn't look like much as since I used light cream instead of heavy, and cut down the butter, my sauce is thinner than depicted in the mag, but there is a lot of flavor in that thin sauce.  I would do this one again!