I’ve taken this from Felicity Cloake’s “How to Make the Perfect…” series. Pulverizing the porcini into a paste is a genius idea that I think makes this dish. The process of getting the porcini into a powder can be a bit of an ordeal. Make sure to cover any openings in your food processors, and be prepared for some amount of porcini powder to be floating around in the air.

This will serve two hungry people as a main, or four as a pasta course or as a side to go with a separate main.

My only real deviation from the original recipe is cooking the mushrooms first, before everything else. I find that I can’t quite get the mushrooms cooked without overcooking the aromatics.

I’m very much in agreement that a fresh pappardelle or tagliatelle works well here.

Ingredients

  • 20 g dried porcini
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 250 g chestnut mushrooms, cut into 5 mm slices
  • Half an onion, peeled and finely diced
  • Half a carrot, diced
  • Half a stick of celery, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
  • 2 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves picked
  • 50 mL dry white wine
  • 100 g tomatoes, chopped
  • Salt
  • 200 g pasta, cooked according to the packet directions, pasta cooking water reserved

Method

Pulverize the dried porcini in a food processor to obtain a fine powder. Hydrate those in a small bowl with around 100 mL of boiling water. Cover the bowl, and set the mushrooms aside.

Start by cooking the fresh mushrooms. Heat a small frying pan over medium heat. Then add the olive oil and butter. Add the mushrooms and cook them until they’ve given up most of their liquid and have browned nicely. Transfer the cooked mushrooms to a bowl and reserve them.

If necessary, top up the butter and olive oil. Add the onion and cook it until it’s soft and translucent. Then add the carrots and celery. Continue cooking until the aromatics are all softened, but not browning. Add the garlic and thyme, cooking very briefly until they’re both aromatic.

Deglaze the pan with the wine and cook it until most of the liquid has evaporated. Then add the tomatoes and lower the heat. Add the cooked mushrooms back to the pan. Season to taste with salt.

Toss the cooked pasta into the sauce. Loosen the sauce if necessary with the reserved pasta cooking water. Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and grated Parmesan.