Martha Stewart's 30-Minute Dinner Recipe Changed My Mind About Mushrooms

If you told nine-year-old me that someday I would be adding almost a pound of mushrooms to my flawless bacon pasta with freakin' cheese on it—on purpose—I would have spun around on my Strawberry Shortcake Velcro sneakers and "run away" from home. Don't even look for me with my JanSport backpack, plastic charm necklaces, and rainbow jelly bracelets, waiting by the neighbor's mailbox for five minutes until I got hungry and dramatically returned home. 

I was raised in Pennsylvania farm country, and the local fungi plants emitted an aroma that made the cows on my best friend's dairy farm, miles of fertilized corn fields, and even the local paper mill seem like a fragrant bouquet of lilies. I was scarred—that was, until I made the taste bud pilgrimage to umami nirvana, and was all, "give me the magical 'shrooms." (The food kind, not the art school kind.) Because oh em gee, you guys, mushrooms are, like, totally radical.

I love a one-pot(ish) pasta dish that only needs five ingredients, and gets dinner on the table in 30 minutes or less. Martha Stewart's Fusilli with Bacon, Onions, and Mushrooms satisfies this—and my now mushroom-loving self.

The dish starts with a pan of bacon and thin-sliced onions, then sizzles mushrooms in those luscious pan drippings. At this point, pasta is folded into the mix, along with fresh herbs and grated Parmesan.

I'm always on the lookout for mushroom recipes like this one because they always feel rich, satisfying, and substantial, even though they star a bunch of veggies. (I'm sorry, I can't yet call them fungi.) Of course, with bacon as the salty, smoky backup, you can go on and take that victory lap.

Based on clinical studies—basically, my boyfriend and I standing in our kitchen that we're currently packing up to move—Martha's pasta elicits the kind of sacred reverence that descends when you're having a moment with the food in your mouth. I think we both mumbled "Mmm" to ourselves, grateful for every savory morsel.

Tips for Making This Dish

I sped things up by opting for a four-ounce package of pre-chopped pancetta, which roughly equals about three strips of thick-cut bacon. (Okay, no one's gonna be mad about a little extra cured pork.) This let me get straight to slicing my onions. Someday, I'll figure out how to do this without ugly-onion crying.

I used fresh flat-leaf parsley as my herb, but I'm totally trying mint next time!

I can confirm that oversized fusilli is life. I used Rummo fusilli since it was available at my grocery store, but any chunky corkscrew or other short pasta turns mushroom pasta into a low-key work of art. Just remember to actually cook the pasta shy of al dente (or one minute short of the package instructions), since it will be going into a hot pan where it will continue to warm a little more. I'm also all about a bronze-cut pasta; hats off to that scuffed-up surface that holds onto sauce and cheese like a champ.

Cremini mushrooms are often labeled as baby portobello or baby bella. These, white button mushrooms, and regular-size portobello mushrooms are all the same species, but at different ages, and teenage baby portobellos combine the firm texture of buttons with the rich meat of portobellos. Chef's kiss.

Maybe the smell of fungi farms is still a little too, um, "authentic" for me, but I'll take the cozy aroma of mushrooms and onions simmering in bacon fat filling up my apartment any day of the week.