Penne Boscaiola
Serious Eats recipe, modified
Servings: 6
Equipment
- Dutch oven
Ingredients
- 12 oz thick-cut smoked bacon cut into thin strips
- 18 oz mixed mushrooms such as cremini, shitaki, oyster... thinly sliced
- Extra virgin olive oil as needed
- 1 medium onion sliced
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp minced fresh thyme leaves
- 28 oz can peeled whole tomatoes and their juices crushed by hand
- ¾ c dry white wine
- 16 oz tubular pasta such as penne or rigatoni
- ¾ c heavy cream
- 3 oz fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
Instructions
- In a large Dutch oven or large sauté pan, cook bacon over medium-high heat, stirring often, until browned, about 5 to 8 minutes. Transfer to a plate using a slotted spoon.
- Add mushrooms to the rendered bacon fat, and cook, stirring often, until mushrooms have browned and have released their moisture. If at any point the pot becomes too dry, add a small splash of olive oil.
- Add onion, garlic, and thyme, then cook, stirring frequently, until onion and garlic are soft and lightly golden, about 6 to 8 minutes. Again, if pot becomes too dry, add a bit of olive oil. Season with salt.
- Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil, and add a large pinch of salt. Add pasta and cook until just shy of al dente (about 1 minute less than typical). Reserve 1 ½ cups of pasta cooking water, then drain the pasta.
- Add drained pasta and cream to the sauce, and bring to a simmer. Add reserved pasta-cooking water as needed to thin the sauce. Cook until pasta is al dente and sauce forms a creamy sheen that coats the pasta. Remove pasta and sauce from heat and stir in cheese. Serve hot.
Notes
The original recipe calls for an ounce of dried porcini mushrooms, hydrated in the 3/4 c white wine (by putting wine and mushrooms in a small sauce pan, heating until steaming, then off heat for 10 minutes). I started that process, and the smell of the hydrating mushrooms turned me off completely. To make up for the loss, I increased the quantity of the other mushrooms (originally 1 lb). To make MM happier (since he doesn't enjoy mushrooms), I upped the amount of bacon as well.