sauce - cream, porcini, pasta, meat
t=teaspoon T=tablespoon + - =more or less
These recipes are for your personal use only and may not be added in any form to archives or other works.
Porcini Cream Sauce
If you love porcini as I do, you will love this sauce. Especially great
over fresh pasta, it is also very good with meat, rice or other grains or for
casseroles in place of bechamel sauce. An uncomplicated and easy sauce
with intense flavour. My favourite is to serve this over lasagnette fresh
pasta (small lasagne) that I make myself. Look for wide band pasata or use
tagliatelli if making your own pasta is not an option for you!
serves 4
15 g. dried porcini mushrooms
3 fresh champignons
1 sm. mild onion (red or other) or 2 shallots
1 garlic clove
2 t. butter
100 ml. cream
150 ml. hot water
100 ml. chicken broth (or other mild broth such as vegetable or calf)
2 t. fresh nepita* or 1 t. dried or a few leaves of fresh sage or 1/8 t. dried, or use thyme
salt, fresh grated pepper
Cover the porcini with the hot water and set aside for 20 minutes. Lift out the porcini and reserve the liquid. Chop the porcini and the champignons and set aside.
Chop the onion and sauté in the melted butter until soft. Add the chopped garlic and continue to sauté for a few minutes. Add the mushrooms and continue to sauté for several minutes more until the liquid released from the fresh mushrooms is reabsorbed.
Add the soaking liquid and the herb and allow to simmer gently uncovered for 8 minutes before adding the hot broth.
Puree to desired consistency, return to pot to reheat and add the cream, pepper well and adjust for salt. Allow to gently simmer a few minutes before serving. If you prefer a thinner sauce, i.e. for pasta, add a little more pasta water, broth or cream.
Note: for pasta, quickly drain the pasta pouring out all the water from the pot. Immediately pour in the sauce THEN add the pasta. Stir gently and allow to absorb a few moments while you pour the wine. Serve in heated pasta plates.
Tip: pecorino (or parmesan cheese) is a wonderful seasoning. When serving pasta with this sauce, I always grate fresh over the sauce. It is the secret to its success with pasta. For meat dishes, be sure to stir in some of the meat juices.
*Nepita (calamintha cataris) is known as catnip in English, an herb known mostly
for cats, who are crazy for it! Not so in Italian cooking where it is a
favourite herb especially for seasoning mushroom dishes. I grow my own,
and I suggest searching online for suppliers as it is a wonderful aromatic
plant! It is also known as nepitella or mentuccia in Italian.
All recipes are excerpts from "Welcome to My Kitchen" - The Epicurean Table and are copyright of the author. Recipes are not to be
added to any form of archive or other works of any kind. Contact the author for further information.
The Epicurean Table © 2003 Patricia Conant