Spaghetti with Ground Pork and Mushrooms

Name: Spaghetti with Ground Pork and Mushrooms: Easy Hearty Recipe
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 40 min
Cuisine: Italian cuisine
Ingredients: Spaghetti 250 g; Water for boiling the pasta 2.5 l; Salt for boiling the pasta 18 g; Meat (lean pork) 250 g; Onion 1; Mushrooms (button mushrooms) 4-5; Olive oil 3 tbsp; Garlic 1-2 cloves; Water 3-4 tbsp; Salt, dried herbs, ground black pepper, ground coriander to taste; Flour (optional, for thickening) 0.5 tsp; Parsley a sprig

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40 mins

What do you need for spaghetti with ground meat?

For 2 servings of spaghetti with ground meat you need 250 g of spaghetti, 250 g of lean pork to grind, an onion, 4–5 button mushrooms, 3 tbsp of olive oil and 1–2 garlic cloves for aroma. The pasta cooks in 2.5 l of water with 18 g of salt, while the meat fries for 5 minutes and then simmers with the mushrooms under a lid for 15 more. The whole dish takes 30 minutes.

For a hearty, tasty breakfast we made spaghetti with ground pork, mushrooms and onion. It has always amazed me how easily and casually people eat spaghetti, deftly twirling it around a fork. Remember Duremar, the leech seller from the Buratino tale? Honestly, I can’t do it. Either the spaghetti is too short or the fork is wrong.

I read somewhere that a special fork with a little electric motor has been invented for true connoisseurs. You catch the spaghetti with the fork, press a button, and the fork winds it up. All that’s left is to lift it to your mouth.

The Italians, it seems, never came up with anything of the kind. They manage spaghetti perfectly well with an ordinary table fork. Although the multi-pronged fork was originally invented more than 300 years ago precisely for spaghetti.

By the way, spaghetti is also used for pasta carbonara, the calling card of Italian cuisine, and for a delicious pasta, spaghetti with chicken, though we are used to navy-style pasta.

But spaghetti, like any other pasta, is only the base of the dish, and the flavor comes from the sauce or the additions. Spaghetti goes well with sauces that contain large pieces, such as spaghetti with mushrooms, which is delicious. From that point of view, pork goes with spaghetti superbly.

More with pork and ground meat

Cannelloni with Ground Pork and Tomato Sauce

1 h

Buckwheat with Ground Pork

30 min

Bulgarian Moussaka

2 h

Homemade Ground Pork Patties

1 h 15 min

Pork Patties with Corn (Boribori)

45 min

Ingredients

2 servings

For the pasta
Spaghetti 250 g
Water for boiling the pasta 2.5 l
Salt for boiling the pasta 18 g
For the sauce
Meat (lean pork) 250 g
Onion 1
Mushrooms (button mushrooms) 4-5
Olive oil 3 tbsp
Garlic 1-2 cloves
Water 3-4 tbsp
Salt, dried herbs, ground black pepper, ground coriander to taste
Flour (optional, for thickening) 0.5 tsp
For serving
Parsley a sprig

Step-by-step recipe

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Pork and mushroom sauce

Spaghetti with ground pork, onion and mushrooms is a hearty dish, perfect for a full breakfast. It’s better not to use meat that is too fatty.
Get a few fresh button mushrooms, an onion and a small piece of lean pork, such as shoulder or leg.
Pour olive oil into a frying pan and fry 1-2 peeled, flattened garlic cloves in it. As soon as the garlic starts to brown, discard it.
The garlic’s job is to flavor the olive oil.
Peel the onion and cut it into thin strips. I recommend cutting the onion lengthwise, so it falls apart less when fried.
Fry the sliced onion over high heat, stirring constantly, until it turns a beautiful golden color.
Grind the pork in a meat grinder.
Add the ground pork meat to the pan with the onion and fry for 5 mins, stirring.
As soon as the ground pork turns pale, add the spices. Season with salt and pepper to taste, add a pinch of ground coriander and a mix of dried aromatic herbs typical of Mediterranean cuisine.
Good quality mixes are sold in shops and contain no unwanted additives. The amount of dried herbs is up to you; I add 0.5 tsp to make the dish fragrant.
Slice the button mushrooms.
Stir the meat with the spices and add the sliced mushrooms.
Add 3-4 tbsp water to the meat and mushrooms and simmer over low heat, covered, for 15 mins.
If for some reason the sauce seems too thin or too dry, I recommend thickening it with a little flour. Dissolve 0.5 tsp flour in a third of a cup of water (200 ml). Pour the flour mixture into the sauce, stir and simmer for 2-3 mins until the flour thickens. But this is optional.
Then the spaghetti will be evenly coated with sauce and turn out juicier.

Spaghetti

Spaghetti cooks very differently depending on the flour and the type. As a rule, good quality pasta costs more than a primitive local mix of flour. Don’t experiment on yourself: buy quality pasta, there is plenty to choose from. It’s convenient to cook the spaghetti while the sauce simmers.
Bring 2.5 l of water to the boil in a large pot and salt it with 18 g of salt.
Pasta is cooked in a fairly large amount of water. Usually you need 10 times more water than dry pasta by weight, and the water is salted at 7 g of salt per 1 l of water. By the way, the table of weights and measures says that 1 tsp holds 8 g of salt.
Add the spaghetti to the boiling water and cook for the time given on the package. Don’t change that time much. As a rule, it gives pasta cooked al dente.
Drain the cooked spaghetti in a colander and let the water run off.

Serving

Combine the spaghetti with the pork and mushroom mixture, then toss.
If you like, and many people do, add more coarsely ground black pepper.
Divide the spaghetti with ground meat among plates and garnish with a sprig of parsley.
Serve the spaghetti right away, without waiting for it to cool.