A deep, meaty, meatless ragù built on three and a half pounds of mushrooms and an ounce of dried porcini. It is browned hard in the pot until a dark crust forms on the bottom, then simmered with white wine, tomatoes and thyme. Serve it on pasta, polenta or toast.
Untested: I have not cooked this one yet. It is here because the Mushrooms dive needed it, and it is adapted from the source named in the Notes.
Ingredients
- 1 oz dried porcini
- 2 cups boiling water
- 3 lb 8 oz mixed fresh mushrooms, chopped
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 onions, finely chopped
- 1 carrot, finely chopped
- 15 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 cup dry white wine
One 15-oz can whole tomatoes, crushed by hand
- 4 sprigs thyme
- Salt and pepper
Directions
Key ingredients
- Soak the porcini. Pour the boiling water over the dried porcini and soak 15 minutes. Lift them out and chop them. Let the liquid settle, then pour it off the grit.
- Brown the mushrooms. Heat the oil in a large pot and cook the fresh mushrooms over high heat. Their water comes first. Keep going until it cooks away and a brown crust (fond) builds on the bottom of the pot, scraping as you go.
- Vegetables. Add the onion, carrot, garlic and chopped porcini, and cook until soft.
- Wine and tomato. Add the wine and scrape up the fond. Add the tomatoes, the thyme and the porcini liquid.
- Simmer. Simmer until thick and rich, then season. Remove the thyme stems.
Notes
Where this recipe came from Adapted from Daniel Gritzer’s “Mushroom Ragù” at Serious Eats (seriouseats.com). The quantities are his. It uses white wine, not red, and 15 cloves of garlic.
Why brown so hard The dark crust on the bottom of the pot is where most of the flavour comes from. Mushrooms will not brown until their water is gone, so the long first stage is necessary. They will not overcook either: their chitin walls do not soften (see the Mushrooms dive’s science page).
About the photo The photo shows fried polenta with a tomato-and-mushroom sauce, the Italian polenta-and-ragù pairing, not this exact recipe.