Whole Wheat Pasta with Brown-Buttered Mushrooms, Walnuts, and an Egg Yolk

“Hold me closer, Tony Danza. Count the head lice on the highway.” –Elton John, except not

When the two human states of Wanting to Be Really Unproductive and Needing a Good Laugh happen to intersect, I personally prefer to peruse a comment thread about misheard song lyrics. Those things never fail to have me cracking up instantaneously, and I think we can all agree this is a complete and utter waste of time. So, goals met.

The classics always show up, of course. Hold Me Closer, Tony Danza. Secret Asian Man. There’s a Bathroom on the Right. One of my two biggest contributions is that, for longer than you’d think, I thought the title of Queen’s song Bohemian Rhapsody was actually Bohemian Rap City. And yes, I thought this DURING the Wayne’s World craze, and yes my friends and I knew all the words and sang the song constantly. I would always sit there wondering where this rap city was, because it’s not a rap song! And it never mentions a city! Good thing I never said this aloud; middle school is hard enough, you know?

Then there was Hungry Eyes, popularized by the Dirty Dancing soundtrack. “Hungry Eyes… I look at you and I can’t decide, I’ve got…. Hungry eyes…” (the correct word is “disguise”) But my version made sense to me in elementary school. Then again, that was when I thought that song was about food, sooooo…..

Sometimes I have a Misheard Song Lyric experience with food. I’ll see a picture, think I know exactly what this dish is about, then read the recipe only to get totally schooled when it’s different, often very different, than what I was thinking. And more often than not, I can’t get my original thought out of my head, so I just go with that. Like when I opened Alison Roman’s absolutely fabulous debut cookbook to page 148 and saw a stunning picture of pasta with mushrooms, an egg yolk, and what I thought were finely chopped nuts, probably walnuts, I decided without reading further. Nope! Turns out, the “walnuts” are actually buckwheat groats.

I couldn’t stop thinking about this dish, so I made it, but as you probably guessed, I used walnuts instead of the groats. One, I’d already subconsciously made up my mind, and the human subconscious isn’t easily dissuaded no matter how strong the evidence; and two, I’ve never eaten buckwheat groats before, and I’m sure I shouldn’t admit this, but I’d never heard of them either, and am still not sure what they are. I know they are food – I know that! But, my initial, knee-jerk thought was that “buckwheat groats” just sounds like two words you NEVER want to hear your gynecologist say.

I loved my walnut adaptation so much that that’s just how I make it and I suppose I’ll likely never know about the groats. I’m okay with that. This is a lovely, simple but full-flavored, vegetarian pasta dish. The egg yolk mixed in makes it sort of carbonara-ish, but then again not really – it’s kind of its own beast. The mushrooms get almost crispy and so earthy in that browned butter, and there’s a small crunch from the walnuts. If you know you’ll have leftovers, and are feeling iffy about making this simply because you don’t want to be dicking around with separating an egg during your harried mornings then worrying about whether it will still be safe to eat after your train has stalled between stations for an extra twenty minutes, don’t be. You can reheat this without the egg yolk and it’s still delicious.

{Recipe is lightly adapted from Dining In by Alison Roman}