Einkorn Fusilli with Mushroom Ragu
Serves 4
Ingredients
- Dried porcini 15g
- Onion 1 medium
- Carrot 1 medium
- Celery 1 stick
- Garlic 3 cloves
- Rosemary 1 sprig
- Thyme 1 sprig
- Bay leaves 2
- Chestnut mushrooms 250g
- Tomato puree 2 tbsp
- White wine 100ml
- Einkorn fusilli
- Salt
- Parmesan
Pick through the dried mushrooms and remove any twigs, and then grind to a fine powder.
With a sharp knife, finely chop the onion, carrot, celery and garlic. Make sure these are really small, no one wants big chunks of carrot in their ragu. Eeez not nice.
Cover the bottom of a heavy saute pan with plenty of Belvedere Organic EVOO*, and fry on a medium heat with a pinch of salt. Cook carefully, allowing to soften and caramelise, without burning. Halfway through, add the finely chopped rosemary and thyme and 2 whole bay leaves then allow the flavours to cook into the soffrito. When it tastes delicious, it is ready for the tomato puree, which needs cooking out, so add a squeeze and cook until the raw tomato taste has gone.
In a separate pan, in plenty of EVOO*, fry the thinly sliced mushrooms. Don’t stir them around too much, let the water steam off and the caramelisation begin before turning them over and repeating the process.
To the cooked mushrooms, add the porcini powder, stir through then add all of this back into the soffrito base.
Pour in the white wine, and cook off until nearly all evaporated.
You might need a splash of water if it all seems too dry (sometimes the porcini can absorb a lot of moisture, so see what you think). Even better wait until the pasta is done and use the cooking water.
Taste and check for seasoning and when you're happy, set aside.
Meanwhile, boil some water with plenty of salt and cook the beautiful Belvedere Einkorn fusilli as per the back of the packet (5 minutes I think it says). When ready, lift out of the water and add to the mushroom ragu, stir through gently and serve with plenty of freshly grated parmesan.
*Don’t be stingy with the oil!! This isn’t a slippery sales tactic, this is important. All the flavours of the ingredients mingle with the oil and when you are finished you have a really rich, tasty sauce. Think of the oil as an ingredient not a cooking tool. Lecture over.
Note:
I padded out the leftover ragu with some ready cooked beluga lentils which worked very well.
