Pasta with Cremini Mushroom Garlic Sauce

Mushrooms add a lovely earthy flavour and meaty texture to this pasta without a lot of added calories.  Here they're paired with ground beef, lots of garlic and fresh tomatoes for a simple, yet delicious pasta sauce.  Cremini mushrooms, also called Italian brown mushrooms, are closely related to the common white button mushroom, but have a darker colour and tend to be a bit more flavourful.  Portobello mushrooms are actually large cremini mushrooms and are well known for their deep brown colour and rich, earthy flavour.  Either one works well in this dish.

Tip:  For a vegetarian version of this dish, swap the ground beef with a 340 g package of ground beef substitute, such as Yves Ground Round.

Ingredients

2 tbsp / 25 ml	canola oil
1/2 cup / 125 ml	chopped onion
1 lb / 454 g	lean ground beef
2 cups / 500 ml	chopped brown mushrooms, cremini or Portobello
8	cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp / 2 ml	dried oregano
1/2 tsp / 2 ml	dried rosemary
4 cups / 1 L	freshly diced tomato
1/4 tsp / 1 ml	coarse sea salt
	freshly ground black pepper
4 cups / 1 L	baby spinach leaves
4 cups / 1 L	cooked whole grain pasta, such as linguine
1/2 cup / 125 ml	coarsely chopped fresh basil

Directions

Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat.  When pan is hot add onions and sauté until soft, about 8 to 10 minutes.  Increase heat to medium-high; add ground beef and mushrooms and sauté until beef is cooked through and mushrooms begin to dry out, about 10 to 12 minutes.

Add garlic, oregano and rosemary; sauté for another minute.

Add tomato, salt and pepper to skillet; stir to combine.  Cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until tomatoes have released most of the juices. 

In a large serving bowl, toss together cooked pasta and spinach.  Top with cooked tomato mixture, toss to coat.  Garnish with fresh basil.

Serve warm.

Serves 4.

Per 1 cup (250 ml) pasta and 1 cup (250 ml) sauce: 502 calories, 37 g protein, 17 g total fat (5 g saturated fat), 55 g carbohydrate, 8 g fibre, 62 mg cholesterol, 313 mg sodium

Source: http://www.lesliebeck.com/book_detail.php?id=146&area=3