Hi, this recipe is from the Guardian's special edition '10 favourite recipes. How to make the perfect...Vegetarian', issue number 14, page 16. Recipe by Felicity Cloake, find online here.
This meal was very tasty and was a bit of a risk with my parents as they weren't 100% sure if they were going to like it. So, as a backup, I'd fried some bacon bits as a topper for them. However there was no need to stress: my Dad said that he would happily eat the dish again without the bacon and my Mum still wants the bacon but did like the mushrooms more than expected. So, all in all, I think it went very well.
The use of dried mushrooms added a nice extra flavour however it was hard to achieve this as our food processor couldn't grind the mushrooms to a fine enough powder so the paste was a bit gritty. In the recipe, it then says to strain the paste through a sieve if this happens (reserving the water), which I did, but you lose most of the flavour doing this. So, next time I would rehydrate the mushrooms and when soft, blend them with water into a paste as this keeps in all the flavour.
If you don't have any dried mushrooms, add in a vegetable stock cube and / or tbsp of marmite as it's the umami flavour you'll be missing. This substitute won't give you an exact replica of flavour, but it will enhance the dish.
Also, I think this dish would be nice with some pine nuts on top too for a bit of crunch.
Enjoy!
Hazel :)
Dietary Info:
-Vegetarian
-Vegan
{If swapping butter for extra oil and a pinch of salt and the cheese for a vegan alternative or nutritional yeast.}
-No Nuts
-Dairy - Free
{See Vegan.}
-Contains Gluten
{Use a gluten-free pasta such as lentil-based pasta, any shape will be fine or serve with mashed potatoes or rice.}
-Main Meal
***
***
Prep: 15 min {Blitzing the dried porcini down to fine powder took a very long time. In total, this meal took me an hour.}
Cook: 30 min
Serves: 2 (easily doubled) {Has enough mushrooms for 200g of pasta.}
Ingredients:
-20g dried porcini
-1 tbsp olive oil
-1 tbsp butter (or 1 extra tbsp olive oil) {I used extra extra virgin olive oil.}
-1/2 onion, peeled and finely diced {I used a brown onion and I feel like this would work best here. If you have shallots, they would work well too. You could also leave them sliced, instead of diced, for a twist on the dish.}
-1/2 carrot, diced {I peeled the carrot as well, but as long as you've washed it, there's no need to.}
-1/2 stick celery, diced
-2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed {I finely chopped them.}
-2 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves picked {We have no fresh thyme, about 1 tsp dried should be fine.}
-250g chestnut mushrooms, cut into thin, roughly ½cm-thick slices {I had 300g of mushrooms but that was fine as we only had 15g of porcini left, rather than 20g.}
-100g chopped tomatoes {I quartered cherry tomatoes.}
-3 tbsp dry sherry or white wine {I used a tbsp of white wine vinegar.}
-200g pasta (I like fresh tagliatelle or pappardelle here) {I used dried tagliatelle.}
-Extra-virgin olive oil and finely grated parmesan, to serve (both optional) {I served with spinach and grated cheddar cheese.}
Method:
1: Blitz the porcini to a powder in a spice grinder or food processor, {I used a food processor for this and I couldn't get it to a fine enough powder no matter how long I blitzed it for. I reckon if you soften the mushrooms enough (rehydrate them) then blend them up, you will have a non gritty paste that is way more flavourful than the suggested strained and diluted one below.} then stir into a bowl filled with 100 ml hot water, to make a paste. Leave to infuse. {I left it to infuse for as long as steps 2 - 4 took.}
2: Heat the oil and butter in a wide pan over a medium-low heat and fry the onion until golden and translucent.
3: Add the carrot and celery, fry until softened, stirring regularly, then add the garlic and thyme and fry for another 30 seconds.
4: Turn up the heat, add the fresh mushrooms and fry, stirring regularly, until they have slumped, browned and no longer give off steam. Add the sherry or wine, sizzle until most of the liquid has evaporated, then add the tomatoes and the porcini paste (taste it first: if it is unpleasantly gritty, dilute it slightly, then strain) and stir well.
5: Bring to a simmer, then turn down the heat, cover and leave to cook gently for about 10 minutes, until thick.
6: In the meantime, cook the pasta in plenty of well-salted {I just used plain boiling water.} boiling water, according to the packet instructions.
7: Season the sauce to taste, then drain the pasta, saving a little of the water. Put the pasta into the pan with the sauce and toss well to coat, adding a splash or two of the reserved cooking water if the sauce seems too thick to coat the pasta evenly. Finish with a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil and serve with grated parmesan or similar. {A nice green salad works well too: rocket or spinach would be my preference.}
While you're here...
I have a Pinterest for all my recipes, where you can save them to boards for the future and categorise them into different types of recipe e.g Sunday Dinners, picnic ideas etc. My account is @hazellikestocook, or find the link below. Also, I have a whole blog post explaining this in more detail here and https://hazelscookingandbakingblog.blogspot.com/2021/02/pinterest.html.
https://pin.it/5xDvARk - my profile
This recipe:
https://pin.it/5p7NtOU
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