Penne with Fish in Garlic-Thyme Cream Sauce

I love to experiment in the kitchen.  It is incredibly fun to try new things out and see what comes out best.  I like successes more than failures but, I always learn from the latter to improve on the next time.  That being said, I think I made a lovely pasta dish last night!  I am so sad to report that I am not sure what kind of fish I used.  It was vacuum-packed from a friend's fishing trip... a long time ago.

However, it turned out tasty!  I would also recommend using a halibut or any type of firm fish that will not fall apart easily.  The fish was accompanied with an outstanding garlic-thyme cream sauce that had spinach, mushrooms, and sun-dried tomatoes in it.  HELLO!  Talk about FLAVORTOWN.  And I warn you--this is extremely garlicky but it is balanced out by the earthy freshness of the thyme and the rich cream and vice versa: the cream, fresh basil and fresh thyme help mellow out the garlic :-)  The tang from the concentrated sun-dried tomatoes is the perfect accompaniment, too, in this hot tub of ingredients and flavors.

Ahhh... ::sigh::

Penne with Fish in Garlic-Thyme Cream Sauce

Sauce:

• 2 onions, grated
• 30 garlic cloves, grated
• This ended up being about 4 tablespoons worth.  However, I used 1 1/2 heads of garlic to achieve this.  You'll figure it out :-)
• 3/4 pound of mushrooms, sliced
• 1 bunch of spinach leaves, chopped up
• a bunch of thyme, cleaned, on the stem
• 3 tablespoons chopped basil leaves
• 1 pint of heavy cream
• 1/4 cup sun-dried tomato pieces, chunked up
• olive oil
• 2 tablespoons butter

Fish:

• Any firm fish you like.  However, I do not recommend salmon or any oily fish.

Pasta:

• Penne or any tubular pasta, especially with ridges to catch the sauce.

Place the some olive oil and the butter into a pan to melt.  Then, add the grated onions with some salt and pepper and cook for a good ten minutes on medium heat.  Add the mushrooms.  Cook until the mushrooms are almost cooked down.  Now, thyme and cook for a few minutes like so before adding the heavy cream and garlic.  Now is the time you should drop your penne into hot, salted boiling water.  

In another pan, heat up some olive oil.  Salt and pepper your chunked up fish and sear on all sides on a medium heat.  This should be enough to cook the fish to doneness.  DO NOT OVERCOOK YOUR FISH!

Heat the cream sauce up to temperature and add the spinach, basil, and sun-dried tomatoes.  Before the penne is al dente, remove from the water directly into the cream sauce and let it finish cooking there.  Mix everything together, season with salt and pepper as you need to, if at all.  Serve immediately with the fish and a generous grating of Parmigiano Reggiano.  Buon appetito!

 Yes... it's a lot of garlic!  If you want to use some out of a jar, then I would recommend four tablespoons of it.  But this amount of garlic totally makes the sauce. 

Make sure to pat dry the fish before seasoning with salt and pepper.  The more dry it is, the better the sear will be.

I love me some fabulous 'shrooms :-)  I used a mix of white button and crimini mushrooms.

Usually, I will use baby spinach leaves from Trader Joe's.  It's $1.99 a bag and quite a lot (depending on how much you need).  Well, I ended up finding fresh whole spinach bunches for 69 cents each and well, there is nothing wrong with a little elbow grease of chopping and rinsing and rinsing to get rid of soil.  Thankfully, I have a salad spinner that got rid of a lot of water because I did not want to water down the cream sauce.

Mmm mmm mmm....

Fresh thyme from the garden rocks my socks :-)  Well, if I actually wore socks.  I'm a Rainbow gal all the way!

I love the colors, textures, and flavors of this dish.  Soooooooo tasty and delicious!