OK... I did it... It was my day off, and I had quarter pound of gorgeous, fresh local morels in the fridge waiting for me. And I knew that I had to use them soon... So I wasn't actually being decadent... I was being sensible...
Not!
So I rinsed them (and, by the way, the hard and fast rule about never allowing mushrooms to come in contact with water is an old wives tale. Just don't soak them for ages... a quick rinse is just fine), trimmed away anything that didn't look good... and these were so perfect that I hardly needed to trim... sliced them in half... and sautéed them in unsalted butter with two minced shallots, a bit of salt, and a lot of pepper for five minutes on medium heat.
Then, I poured in a whole cup... I know, I know... of organic heavy cream. I let that bubble away on a low simmer while I cooked a half pound of pasta. Now if I'd been at home, I would have made the pasta, but good dried pasta is just fine.
When the pasta was 95% done, I drained it and added it to the sauce with a drop of the pasta water to thin it just a bit. Off the heat, I tossed in about a cup of microplaned Parmesan and proceeded to gorge myself.
I know this has excess written all over it, but how often am I in a place where I can get fresh, perfect morels for $16 a pound!!! And in my defense... half of this is in the fridge waiting for me... for a second meal.