Light balsamic cream pasta with wild mushrooms and asparagus

The dinner I made tonight was inspired by something I ate at Teresa Caffe in Princeton -- one of my favorite restaurants.  It didn't taste like the dish I ate there (which was delicious and very fatty), but it was good, and I reduced the fat content wherever I could for this type of sauce.  I used some guidance from Rachel Ray's site (one of my faves!), since I've never made anything like this before.   As a starter, my mom made a fabulous salad with craisins, toasted pecans, and ginger vinagrette -- yummy!!

Note: if you are looking to make this, please read the notes and the ones under the ingredients, you will want to make some adjustments.  This was an experiment that did not come out that great, but I learned a lot!

Ingredients

~1 lb. penne pasta

1 generous tbsp. butter

olive oil
Salt, pepper
3 tbsp. grated parmesan

1 tbsp. flour

1/4 lb. shitake mushrooms, sliced thin (very overpowering, I'd recommend leaving them out and increasing others)

4/6 lb. white mushrooms, sliced

1 package of baby portabello/crimini mushrooms, sliced
a bundle of asparagus, chopped bite-size (remember to wash them thoroughly - esp the heads!)

2 cloves garlic, chopped/minced

2 shallots, chopped

1 tsp. fresh thyme leaves (if you only have dry, you only really need 1/8 tsp.)
handful chopped parsley

1/2 cup vegetable stock*

1/4 cup good white wine**

4 tbsp. half-and-half (instead of heavy cream)

2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar (try to use something aged, it would add a nicer, sweeter flavor)

*this was experimental since my mom doesn't eat chicken -- you can use chicken stock and/or increase the amount by 1/4 cup since the pasta could use more sauce.  
**the white wine flavor seemed compete with the shitake mushrooms and overpowered the flavor we were looking for with the balsamic vinegar, so you may want to leave it out, increasing the amount of stock instead.

How I did it

Cook the pasta in salted water.  Drain, rinse with cold water and set aside.

In a large pan, heat the oil and melt the butter together.  Add the mushrooms and saute them for 4-5 minutes on medium heat, stirring often.  Add a little splash of white wine to deglaze the pan.  Add a teaspoon of salt and pinch of pepper.  Add the chopped asparagus, cook for 1 minute.  Then garlic, shallots and thyme, cook for 2 minutes (until shallots are transparent).  Sprinkle the flour into the pan, cook for 2 minutes. 

Stir in the balsamic vinegar, stock, (wine**) and half-and-half.  Turn the heat to medium-high and let it simmer for about 2-3 minutes until thickened.  Turn the heat off, immediately add most of the parsley and two tbsp. of the grated parmesan and stir.  Pour onto the pasta in a serving dish and sprinkle the remainder of the parsley and parmesan on top.  Season with additional salt and pepper as needed.  Eat while hot, and drink with some good white wine and even greater company :-)