Creamy Mushroom Ragu
When we cooked this dish in class, I think I cried a little…it was THAT good. At the time, it was my favorite thing we’d made to date (now, that changes pretty much weekly, ha!).
The version we made in class was the same mushroom base but we served it over grilled bread (which, don’t get me wrong, is equally as delicious) but I love the idea of serving the creamy mushroom ragu over pasta. It’s so luxurious and it’s a big crowd pleaser!
Definitely don’t skip out on the dried porcini mushrooms – they provide so much depth of flavor and umami. It’s pretty easy to find them at your local grocery store these days but if you can’t, you can buy them here. In terms of the fresh mushrooms, really anything will work in this. Since you get that rich mushroom flavor from the dried porcini, you don’t need to go crazy on a fancy wild mushroom – button or crimini mushrooms work really well!
Serves 4-6
INGREDIENTS
1/2 oz dried porcini mushrooms
1 cup chicken stock
2 Tbsp finely chopped parsley
1 Tbsp minced garlic
2 pounds fresh mushrooms, such as crimini or button
4 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp finely diced shallots
1 cup heavy cream
Salt and pepper
1 pound cooked pasta of choice, such as Pappardelle
Watercress
METHOD
Rinse the dried porcini and place them in a saucepan with the chicken stock over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to reach a simmer. Cover the pan and simmer for 30 minutes. Strain the porcini stock through a cheesecloth or coffee filter to get rid of any grainy bits and reserve the porcini-infused broth; rinse the porcini and give them a rough chop. Set aside.
Mix the chopped parsley and minced garlic together in a bowl. Set aside.
Trim the fresh mushrooms and cut in half or in quarters, depending on their size. Melt the butter in a large saute pan and brown the mushrooms over high heat, in batches so not to overcrowd the pan. Set aside the browned mushrooms.
In the same pan, adding a little more butter as needed, saute the shallots over medium-low heat until soft but not brown. Add the reserved porcini-infused stock, chopped porcini, cream and any liquid from the browned mushrooms. Simmer to reduce and concentrate the flavor.
Add the sauteed mushrooms to the sauce and cook just to re-heat them. Add plenty of salt (mushrooms take a LOT of salt) and pepper to taste.
Toss the creamy mushroom sauce with the cooked pasta and top with fresh watercress and the parsley + garlic mixture.
Recipe adapted from SF Cooking School.