The juices are flowing. Another really flavorful sauce which is great with meat and pasta is the porcini mushroom sauce. There are lots of variations of this but the one I have cited below is wonderful and pretty easy to prepare:
- 1 lb of porcini mushrooms (if you can't find them then 3 oz of the dried version)
- 1 good size onion (i prefer red)
- 1 carrot
- 1 celery stalk
- 2 garlic cloves
- parsley (amt omitted, but i prefer a good amount)
- 4 large and ripened tomatoes
- oregano (QB - just a sprinkle)
- 1/2 extra vergin olive oil
- salt and pepper
Ok now roll up your sleeves and prepare the herbs chopped and mixed together however don't add yet the parsley and brown these in a sauce pan in the olive oil. You may want to dilute some with a bit of warm (always warm water with preparing your sauces) water. Then add in the porcinis (cleaned naturally and sliced) and if you are using the dried ones, they must be soaked first and I like to soak them in warm water and balsamic vinegar. Add in the ripened tomatoes, the oregano and salt/pepper. Lower the heat and stir frequently allowing the mushrooms to cook very slowly as your sauce thickens. Now add in your parsley (finely chopped)!
As usual, give me your feedback!
Saluti
I'm making this today..using some dried porcini, some fresh champignon and some other dried funghi that we found around here. I think it looks interesting with the addition of the sofritto and pomodori.
ReplyDeleteI'll make this again. The sauce was hearty and full of wonderful funghi flavor. I was afraid that the sofritto might be a little distracting for my Florentine "friend" but chopped small enough it softened nicely and definitely added more flavor. The other dried funghi I used are called "ordinari", found locally in the mountains where I live. When the sauce needed some moisture I used the soaking water from the porcini. (I omitted the balsamico.) I cooked it for about half an hour and did add a touch of tomato paste carmelized it on the side of the pan before adding it to the rest. We chose a short pasta, conchiglie which worked out well trapping little pieces of the sauce. Bravo!
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