Sara Evans's Peas and Mushroom Alfredo

Tim McGraw may prefer that old fashioned, down-home style of cooking like Chicken and Dumplings, but not every Country Music Star eats Southern.

“Good Housekeeping Magazine” recently printed a Sara Evans’s favorite recipe. The “Cheatin’” and “Real Fine Place To Start” singer chose an Italian influenced entree that would appeal to an audience wider than her Country Music fan base.

Sara Evans’s Peas and Mushroom Alfredo is as up-to-date and trendy “As If” it came from a New York Bistro.

Sara Evans’s Peas and Mushroom Alfredo:

1 pound of fettuccine pasta
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 10 ounce package sliced mushrooms
1 15 to 18 ounce jar Alfredo Sauce
1 10 ounce package frozen peas
1 to 2 cups grated Romano Cheese

Cook the fettuccini in a large saucepan, and set aside. Meanwhile in a large saute pan, heat the olive oil and saute the mushrooms until lightly browned. Add Alfredo sauce and peas and heat through. Grate the cheese with a cheese grater. Stir in one cup of the cheese.

Drain the fettuccini in a colander. In a large serving type bowl, toss the fettuccine and Alfredo sauce mixture. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot with the remaining Romano Cheese.

Serves 6.

Keep Cool With Mushrooms

Maxine, you neglected to mention one of the basic food tricks for keeping cool in the summer, and that is, cutting down on your consumption of meat. Maybe it was a money issue, but hardly anyone ate a lot of meat in the summer when we were young. Most meals were vegetarian (we didn’t call it that). The absence of meat seemed to make the meal “lighter” and easier to digest.

One of the early groups to promote healthy eating, and vegetarianism, was the Shakers. For a number of years they followed a vegetarian philosophy, and even after they abandoned it, they minimized the consumption of meat. Mushrooms in Sherry Butter came from an old cookbook of the Harvard Mass. Shaker Village. It appears in one form or another in all my old Shaker cookbooks.

This Pre-Civil War recipe demonstrates how to substitute vegetables (I suppose a mushroom is a vegetable) for meat in the diet. Note that while meat was taken out of the diet, alcohol, in the form of sherry, was not. While this is served hot, the dill adds a cooling element and mushrooms are much lighter than meat, like a pork chop.

Mushrooms in Sherry Butter:

2 cups mushrooms
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon saltdash black pepper
1 tablespoon dry sherry wine
1 tablespoon fresh dill

Finely slice the mushrooms with a Santoku Knife. Sauté mushrooms in butter in a frying pan. Season with salt and pepper and cook stirring constantly for 2 to 3 minutes. Add sherry and dill. Serve over toast or with plain chicken.

Serves 2