One-pot pasta with minced meat, mushrooms and gherkins in ajowan mustard sauce

Ingredients for 3 servings:

• 180 g pasta (maccheroni) or other pasta with a short cooking time
• 500 g minced meat, mixed
• 400 g mushrooms, brown
• 2 m.-sized onion(s)
• 60 g gherkins
• 1 tsp ajowan, whole
• 50 g mustard, medium hot
• 20 g honey, liquid
• ¾ tsp paprika powder, hot
• ¾ tsp paprika powder, smoked
• 100 ml red wine, dry
• 500 ml beef broth
• 120 g sour cream
• e.g. salt and pepper
• 3 tbsp parsley, chopped
• 1 tbsp oil for frying

Instructions

Working time approx. 15 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 20 minutes; Total time approx. 35 minutes

Clean and slice the mushrooms. Peel and finely dice the onions. Halve the gherkins lengthwise, then dice them. Heat the oil in a high, wide frying pan and fry the minced meat over high heat for about 4 minutes until crumbly. Then add the mushrooms and fry for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the moisture in the mushrooms has evaporated. Reduce the heat slightly, add the onions, and fry for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Sprinkle in the ajwain and add the mustard along with the honey. Mix everything together and sauté for a further 1 minute. Sprinkle in the hot and smoked paprika, stir briefly, and deglaze with the red wine. Let this reduce for about 1 minute, then pour in the beef broth. Immediately add the sour cream and gherkins and mix well. Bring everything to a boil. Add the raw pasta and mix. Cover and cook the pasta for about 7 minutes, until al dente. Season to taste with black pepper and salt, if desired. Garnish with chopped fresh parsley when serving. Notes: I used pasta with a cooking time of 6 minutes. In a one-pot cooker, the pasta cooks a little slower than normal. Be sure to stir in the sour cream before the stock comes back to a boil, otherwise the sour cream could curdle. If you don’t want red wine, leave it out and use a splash of red wine vinegar instead for acidity. If you don’t have ajwain, you can roughly recreate the main flavors of the ajwain with about 3/4 thyme and 1/4 caraway. Add the caraway with the mustard and the thyme with the paprika.