Last night I decided to make homemade pasta with porcini mushroom sauce for my husband. One of the things he loved while we were in Italy was eating all of the wonderful porcini mushroom dishes. Unfortunately, we can’t get fresh porcinis here, but I had some dried ones I brought back and wanted to try a new sauce. The sauce recipe was from epicurious.com. We enjoyed this dish with a great bottle of DuckHorn Cab we brought back from Napa a couple of years ago.
PORCINI MUSHROOM SAUCE
1 1/2 oz dried porcini mushrooms
1 cup warm water
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 c. chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 c. dry Marsala
1/2 c. dry white wine
1 tsp. minced fresh rosemary
1 c. chicken stock or canned low-salt chicken broth
1 c. beef stock or canned beef broth
1 Tbsp. butter, room temp.
1 Tbsp all purpose flour
Combine porcini mushrooms and 1 cup warm water in small bowl. Let stand until mushrooms soften, about 30 minutes. Remove mushrooms from liquid, squeezing excess liquid from mushrooms back into bowl; reserve liquid. Place mushrooms in another small bowl.
Heat oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic;saute until onion browns, about 15 minutes. Add Marsala and white wine. Increase heat;boil until most liquid evaporates, about 7 minutes. Add rosemary, mushrooms, and both stocks. Pour in reserved mushroom liquid, leaving any sediment behind. Boil until liquid mixture is reduced to 2 cups, about 15 minutes.
Mix butter and flour into small bowl to blend;whish into mushroom mixture. Simmer until sauce thickens, about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
src=”http://cindysbakedalaska.com/images
PASTA
Use 1/2 fine semolina and 1/2 regular(or bread) flour (if you can find it, 11 or 00 is best). Use 100 grams of flour per 1 egg. For 2-3 people, follow 1 egg per person. Cut back on quantity as you increase-for instance, 4 eggs for 5-6 people. Don’t incorporate all of the flour to begin-see what it needs. Make well in center of flour, break eggs into well, then using your fingers or a fork bring in flour until it is ready to knead. Then knead until dough is smooth. Add flour if dough is sticky. When smooth, cover and let rest a while (30 min is good). Cut dough into 1/2s or 1/3s, and roll through pasta machine. Roll twice on #1, then once on each number after that. Go to 6 or 7. Let rest to dry out a little before cutting. As you cut, place on baking sheet and fluff with a little flour to keep from sticking.
This is the pasta recipe I learned while taking a cooking class in Florence. I love the recipe-it never sticks to the pasta machine like my old recipes did. Pasta is easy to make, and once you’ve made it a couple of times, it’s very quick. Here are photos of the pasta being made: