Name: Porcini Mushroom Sauce with Cream
Total time: 35 min
Ingredients: 3 tablespoons unsalted butter; 1 medium onion , minced; 2 ounces dried porcini mushrooms , rehydrated in 2 cups hot water, strained, and chopped coarse; soaking liquid reserved; Salt and ground black pepper; 6 tablespoons heavy cream; 3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves

Why This Recipe Works

We wanted to create a dried porcini mushroom sauce recipe for pasta with a robust, earthy flavor. We found that a soak of 20 minutes in hot tap water was enough to soften the mushrooms for our porcini sauce recipe, and five or 10 minutes more did no harm. But perhaps more important than soaking was straining. Dried porcini are often packaged with foreign matter. Lifting the mushrooms from the soaking liquid with a fork helped keep the grit in the bowl. We didn’t discard the leftover liquid, instead pouring it through a small mesh strainer lined with a single paper towel before using it to flavor our sauce.

Before You Begin

Toss this intensely flavored sauce with one pound of dried (or one and one-quarter pound of fresh) fettuccine and one-half cup of Parmesan cheese. Pass extra cheese at the table.

Instructions

Heat butter in large sauté pan over medium heat. Add onion; sauté until edges begin to brown, about 7 minutes. Add porcini and salt and pepper to taste; sauté to release flavors, 1 to 2 minutes.

Increase heat to medium-high. Add soaking liquid; simmer briskly until liquid has reduced by half, about 10 minutes.

Stir in cream; simmer until sauce just starts to thicken, about 2 minutes. Stir in parsley, adjust seasonings, and serve.