Delicious Spring Pasta: Farfalle with Veal, Porcini, and Spinach

 

Every time we see a recipe that calls for dried porcini mushrooms, we get a little scared. We'd never worked with them before and weren't really sure what they were all about. Plus, dried porcini mushrooms always seem to be so expensive, and without knowing what they taste like or what they're good for, we never bothered to try them out.

Until now.

Turns out, they're not so scary after all. You only need a tiny amount of them for the dish you're going to use, they have a big, hearty mushroomy flavor that you just cannot get from a regular mushroom, and the liquid that you use to rehydrate them can be used to enhance the flavor of the dish you're preparing.

We found this recipe in Mario Batali's latest cookbook Molto Batali and modified it a bit for our small kitchen. The porcini mushrooms are mixed with ground lamb, tomato, and spinach, for an extraordinary pasta. The results are below.


Making the Dish
What You'll Need

1 oz dried porcini mushroom
2 tbsp olive oil
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 tsp red chile flakes
1/2 lb ground veal
1 tbsp tomato paste
1/4 cup white wine
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/2 lb farfalle
4 oz baby spinach
pecorino romano
salt and pepper

Start by rehydrating the porcini mushroom. Place them in a bowl and fill with 1 cup or so of warm water. Let them rest in there for about 10 minutes. When they're nice and big, drain them and reserve the liquid - you'll need it for later. Run the liquid through a sieve to get out any dirt. Chop the porcini coarsely.

Heat up the olive oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium heat. Add in the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook until fragrant, about 2 - 3 minutes. Once done, add in the veal and the porcini and cook until the veal has browned, which should be about 8 - 10 minutes over high heat.

When the veal is ready and the porcini are nice and soft, add in the tomato paste and stir everything together so that the paste is completely incorporated. Let the tomato paste toast a bit on the pan's hot surface, for about 5 minutes, until it has developed a deep, dark looking color.

When the tomato paste is where you want it to be, add in the white wine, and about 1/3 of a cup of the porcini soaking liquid. Stir to incorporate. You should have a nice sauce forming at this point. Once the wine has nearly evaporated, add in the tomato sauce and stir to incorporate. Return the heat to low and simmer

While your veal and porcini mixture is simmering, cook your pasta. Bring the water to a boil and add in a bit of salt. Cook the farfalle until 1 minute shy of the package directions. Drain the pasta, reserving a touch of water just in case.

At this point, toss the spinach into the veal and porcini mixture, bringing the heat back up a bit. Stir it around until the spinach has started to wilt. Then, add the drained farfalle to the mixture as well, and a touch of pasta water if necessary, and toss everything together over high heat until the farfalle and veal and porcini sauce are completely incorporated.

Season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve with grated pecorino romano to finish. Enjoy!

Have you ever cooked with dried porcini mushrooms before? Let us know in the comments!

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