(Serves 4)

Ingredients

3 Tbsp butter

250 g soft biltong, sliced very thinly

1 medium onion, chopped

2 fat garlic cloves, finely chopped

250 g button mushrooms, sliced

2 Tbsp coriander seeds

1 heaped tsp ground coriander

2 Tbsp picked thyme leaves

75 ml dry white wine

1 Tbsp lemon juice

250 ml cream

Salt

Black pepper

Parmesan shavings

Biltong shavings

Linguine (enough to feed 2 or more depending on how many you are feeding)

2 ladles of pasta water

Method

Put the coriander seeds and ground coriander in a saucepan with the cream. Bring to a very gentle simmer, turn off the heat, and leave it to steep in the heated cream for 20 minutes or more. After that, strain the coriander cream into a jug and keep it to one side. Discard the seeds.

Sauté the onions gently in melted butter with the garlic. Add the sliced mushrooms and thyme leaves and cook on a moderate heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until the mushrooms release their juices. Cook until they’re nutty brown.

Add the wine and lemon juice and cook for two minutes, stirring.

Add the biltong and the coriander cream, season with salt and black pepper, and cook gently, while stirring now and then, for a few minutes. Meanwhile, cook linguine in rapidly boiling lightly salted water until al dente, and drain after pouring two ladlefuls of the pasta water into the biltong sauce.

Pour the sauce (with the two ladlefuls of pasta water in it) into the pasta remaining in the pot. Heat it through on the hob, tossing the pasta through the biltong and mushroom sauce.

You should find that the pasta water incorporates into everything else quite seamlessly, so it is not likely to be very runny.

Serve garnished with biltong shavings and Parmesan shavings. DM/TGIFood 

To enquire about Tony Jackman’s book, foodSTUFF (Human & Rousseau) please email him at [email protected] 

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