Italian-Asian Fusion experiment #1 (or more on how I lost my mind)

I have been reminiscing on Olive Garden. Yes, there…I said it. I admit it…I love Olive Garden. I have a weak spot in my cold small heart for those cheesy overly priced chain food restaurants. Having lived in Miami all my life I was used to them. Then having moved to NYC they were few and far between. I missed them dearly and now that I’m in Los Angeles I have so many to choose from.

I remember having gone to the Olive Garden on 6th Avenue in Chelsea once when I lived in NYC and my friend ordered this most magnificent steak and pasta dish with gorgonzola cheese. I was thinking about it this weekend and decided I’d try to make that dish, but things got sidetracked and much like Dr. Frankenstein I made a monster (albeit a tasty one).

I went to the market in search for my ingredients and bought a sirloin, some fresh fettucini (as fresh as it can get without having to make it yourself which I’ve done and it’s a pain) and some alfredo sauce (also used to make it as it’s quite easy to make, but I was trying to just make this as easy a dish as possible). I could not find any gorgonzola cheese!!!! So I skipped it and went home.
At home, I had some frozen mixed mushrooms I bought from Whole Foods, some frozen green beans I’ve had in the freezer for who knows how long…and it was at this point, I realized I would be making something completely different and spectacular…something the WORLD HAS NEVER SEEN BEFORE!

You see, the mixed mushrooms are Asian mushrooms containing enoki mushrooms, shitake, plain white button mushrooms, etc. At this point, blending Asian mushrooms with Italian sauces was such a completely bizarre concept that it was totally worth it.

Oh and while we were eating, Rus wanted me to specifically tell you guys how wonderful he thought this dish was. So there you go!
Here’s how I did it:

• I grilled the Sirloin Steak on an indoor grill pan until it was medium on the inside.
• While the steak was grilling, I boiled the fettucini as the instructions dictated.
• While that was also goin’ on…I added the frozen mushrooms and the green beens to a pan with a small drizzle of olive oil and pinch of salt and sauteed this until completely defrosted.
• After the mushrooms are cooked, there should be some liquid in the pan…that’s fine. Add, the alfredo sauce to the pan and stir, blending the liquid and the sauce together.
• Slice the sirloin.
• Mix the sauce/mushroom mixture with the fettucini and plate it.
• Top the pasta with the sliced sirloin and enjoy!

This is one weird dish I will definitely cook again!