Name: Tomato Sauce with Porcini Mushrooms
Total time: 45 min
Ingredients: 3 tablespoons olive oil; 1 medium onion , minced; 1 rib celery , minced; 1 small carrot peeled and minced; 1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms , rehydrated, strained, and chopped coarse; soaking liquid reserved; 1 teaspoon table salt; (28 ounce) can whole tomatoes (preferably plum), packed in juice, drained, seeded, and chopped; 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 sauce with spaghetti or fusilli and serve with grated Parmesan cheese.

Instructions

Heat oil in large sauté pan over medium heat. Add onion, celery, and carrot; sauté until vegetables soften, 8 to 10 minutes. Add porcini and salt; sauté to release flavors, 1 to 2 minutes.

Increase heat to medium-high; add tomatoes and soaking liquid. Bring sauce to boil, lower heat, then simmer until sauce thickens, about 15 minutes. Stir in parsley, adjust seasonings, and serve.