Miso Scented Pasta with Celery and Mushrooms #KitchenMatrixCookingProject

This weeks recipes for the Kitchen Matrix Cooking Project, spearheaded by Cam of Culinary Adventures with Camilla,  are inspired from the Celery section of Mark Bittman's cookbook.

Each week we are making recipes inspired by different sections of this cookbook.  You can learn more about it at Cam's information post.

Last week our theme was quick stocks.  I made a stock using red miso.  Next week our theme is miso.  I used the same red miso to make Miso Spice that I will be sharing with you.  I made both the stock and the spice on the same day and used them in today's theme of Celery.

I served this pasta boiled in the miso stock, tossed with stir-fry celery, garlic and mushrooms and sprinkled with the Miso Spice for a Meatless Monday dinner.

I had never worked with Miso before.  I anticipated it to be very salty.  I did taste the broth before boiling the pasta but I think I was so convinced that it was going to be salty that I fooled my taste buds or something.  I did not add any salt to the stock before adding the pasta, even though I am very generous with the salt when using water.

What resulted was a dish that was very bland.  I even used less salt than normal when cooking my veggies, so worried was I that my dish was going to be too salty.  I should have seasoned my veggies normally and added a lot more garlic and maybe some onion.

In my husbands words, "Thank God for the celery".  Without that celery the dish would have been absolutely tasteless.  We did add more salt at the table but pasta really needs salt during the cooking process.  Oh well, live and learn.....we certainly didn't go hungry....we ate our fill but the leftovers went to the chickens instead of the refrigerator for lunch the following day.

I'm not sharing my recipe that was adapted from Bittman's.  Bittman did not use miso stock and cooked his celery in bacon grease.  He then added the rendered bacon to his dish with a little olive oil and sprinkle of Parmesan Cheese.  

Let's take a look at what the other's were inspired to make using Celery.

An InLinkz Link-up