I developed a spinach stroganoff when I was in college that I still use to this day. I saute mushrooms and onions with ground pepper (mixed variety) and any of the three - basil, tarragon, or fresh oregano. When onions are about halfway cooked I add either fresh spinach, small zucchini slices, fresh peas or whatever even if it's seven or eight sliced green olives, then a splash of white wine and continue to cook and add one - three cloves of fresh garlic cut in chunks you can stab with a fork (I like the garlic barely cooked) and ground coriander to taste. When the pasta is drained, remove saute from heat and add sour cream, hopefully there's some concentrated fluid in the mix ( a tablespoon or so) to help season the sour cream, mix well and add to pasta, maybe top with shredded Parmesan - not the stuff already shredded in a package.

I like angel hair pasta, cooking time is short and it's inexpensive. I lived on that in college and I still make it at least once a week. Other items can be added for variety like fresh tomato or for carnivores, some meat of choice.

I'm curious about the green olive one, myself.

it comes from my super practical mom when I was very young and she a poor military wife w/children. She made some burger dish (though the burger was often deer meat) with tomatoes, onions and bell peppers... and slices of green olives mixed with macaroni. The olives took away the blandness of the dish and lessened the need for salt.

Much later in life I found that a jar of green olives isn't a pricey item, you can store them for some time and that they are a great "third item" for my dish when the fresh greens aren't available, it also takes a while to go through a whole jar... I live in the northern Rockies so "winter fare" (as in canned/preserved produce, stored pasta and grains) is a necessity. Olives make for a cheap substitute for fresh greens to some degree and work well with the not-really-cooked garlic.

If you let the onions brown some before adding the wine it makes the flavor really nice.

Glad you want to try it, let me know how it goes or if you like it.

2na

My wife is not a huge mushroom fan, so I'll probably saute them separately. Though I may put some in the sauce to get the flavor and then take them out.

I used your method of noodles, sauce, and beef/mushroom prepped separately. I used white wine instead of the vinegar. And regular sour cream. I think next time I might cut down the thyme a smidge--it was a little strong. But that is an awesome sauce.

And I had a Guinness with it which was a perfect pairing.

I'll have to add that next time!

Glad you liked it!

I keep about six different beers chilled in the fridge and I usually just reach in and grab one. That's what I did last night. Had some of the stroganoff and took the first drink and it was so ridiculously good.