Buttermilk Channel's Brown Butter, Corn, and Mushroom Linguine

By Sarah DiGregorio Mon., Jul. 12 2010 at 9:00 AM

Categories: DiGregorio, Vegetarian Delights of NYC

Carroll Gardens' Buttermilk Channel has an entire menu dedicated to meatless dishes, so it's not surprising to find fine vegetarian fare at the restaurant. What is surprising, though, is just how extraordinarily delicious this simple plate of pasta manages to be.

The linguine with corn and mushrooms is the kind of dish you might order out of apathy, because you don't feel up to fried chicken or duck meat loaf and you want something more than a salad. And then this fragrant pile of noodles arrives and your dining companions -- even the one with the fried chicken -- suddenly look a little jealous.

The pasta comes from Caputo's, the old Italian shop down the street. It's sauced in a rich slurry of brown butter and corn milk, which pools at the bottom of the plate and makes the linguine pleasantly sodden. The mushrooms are a mix of types, with sweet, feathery chanterelles the most prominent, soaking in the sauce like beige sponges. Sharp Pecorino goes on top to counteract all that vegetable sweetness. The flavors go whiz-bang; the linguine is all silk and chew. It's a dish to make you love summer even when the whole city seems like a basketball player's armpit.

Buttermilk Channel
524 Court Street, Brooklyn
718-852-8490