There are as many variations of the Russian dish Beef Stroganoff as there are households that make it. At its core, Stroganoff is a creamy beef, mushroom, and noodle dish. From there, the roads diverge.
My mother-in-law had her version, using canned cream of mushroom soup, which was a family favorite. My version doesn’t have a soup can in sight and has an Italian twist using pasta instead of the traditional, often mushy, egg noodles. If you’ve never made this dish before, give this version a try. Once you’ve mastered it, you can use this recipe as a base and create your own variations.
Arliano Update (Aggiornamento Arliano):
We had a break from the rain for a few days, a perfect chance for the workers to mount external insulation around the house. It looks like a puffed up giant gray Styrofoam cooler. Eventually they’ll add a thick layer of colored stucco over the insulation to match the color of our house. The rains have now returned so it’s back to the inside of the house pouring concrete over plumbing and electrical pipes and tubes and leveling or floors.
In the garden, we’re considering when to pull out the tomato, eggplant, okra and bean skeletons and their respective support poles. Once the plant remnants are gone, we can then pull up the irrigation hoses. The soft, drip hoses will be discarded after three years of use and wear and tear. They barely functioned this year. The hard irrigation tubes, on the other hand, will be coiled, labeled, and stored in our attic until next spring. All that will remain, then, are the leeks, which can even survive several frosts.
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Beef Stroganoff with an Italian Twist
Ingredients
* 1 pound (16 ounces) lean ground beef
* 1 pound (16 ounces) button or cremini mushrooms, weighed once they are cleaned and the stems have been removed
* 3/4 pound – 1 pound (12 – 16 ounces) dried pasta. Choosing 3/4 pound (12 ounces) of pasta will give the consistency more like a traditional, saucy, Beef Stroganoff. Choosing a full pound (16 ounces) of pasta will make the dish heartier, serve more people, and be more pasta-forward. I used a full pound (16 ounces) and you can see how it looks in the photos. The choice is yours
* 1 medium onion, any color, finely diced
* 1/2 cup (roughly 2 ounces) all-purpose flour
* 3/4 cup (177 ml) beef broth or stock
* 3/4 cup (177 ml) whole milk
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
* 2 garlic cloves, minced
* 2 – 3 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper (2 is flavorful, 3 brings heat)
* 3 + 1/2 teaspoons kosher or sea salt (not iodized table salt), divided
* 1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
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Directions
- Place sliced mushrooms and diced onions in a very large sauté pan with the olive oil and butter, 1 teaspoon of the salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Bring the pan to medium-low heat and cover with a lid. Stirring occassionally, sauté for approximately 15 minutes, then remove the lid and continue to cook until the mushrooms have lost their water and most of the liquid in the pan has evaporated (about another 10 minutes depending on your heat level and pan thickness). Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Transfer this mushroom and onion mix to a bowl and set it aside. NOTE: Do not be tempted to drain the liquids to save time. Doing so will result in the loss of the seasonings you added. Be patient during this process
- Bring a large pot of water with 2 teaspoons of salt to a rolling boil. Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook according to package instructions minus 1 minute. While the pasta is cooking, begin the next step (step 3). Save 1 cup of pasta water (just in case you need it), then drain, but do not rinse the pasta
- As soon as you add the pasta to the boiling water, begin browning the ground beef at a medium heat with 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Stir regularly until the meat has browned and has just cooked through. Turn off the heat and using a spoon, drain any fat from the pan. Sprinkle the flour over the ground beef and stir until it is fully incorporated. The key point is that you should start step 3 as soon as you add the pasta to the boiling water. This will ensure that both the pasta and the ground beef are cooked at the same time and are ready to be combined in step 4
- Add the mushroom/onion mix, including any exuded liquid, to the sauté pan with the ground beef and stir well. Add the beef broth/stock and milk and stir. Add the cooked and drained pasta to the pan with the mushrooms and beef and stir well. Turn the heat back on to medium and bring the liquids to a simmer. Simmer until the liquids thicken, about 5 minutes. Stir often. (If you prefer a looser/creamier Stroganoff, add small splashes of milk or the pasta cooking water until you reach your desired consistency.) Taste for seasonings and add salt, pepper, or nutmeg as needed. The nutmeg should be very subtle. Give the Stroganoff a good stir after each serving to redistribute “the good stuff” that often settles to the bottom of the pan
Greg Nelson Cooks 