This recipe is hardly original. In fact, pasta with mushrooms is one of the oldest and most common combinations in Italian cuisine, not just found across the Italian peninsula, but served and eaten all over the world.
It would be fairly accurate to refer to this as ‘Boscaiola’ sauce, however at red grapevine we shy away from using the traditional terminology. Calling a dish ‘bolognaise’, ‘carbonara’, or ‘boscaiola’ enters dangerous territory. It is difficult enough to meet (or exceed) customer expectations as it is, near impossible if you invite the customer to bring a whole lot of preconceptions to the experience. It is not just connoiseurs, traditionalists or pedants that I’m afraid of either. Almost everyone in the world has some experience, concept, or expectation of what these dishes are. When advertising ‘Boscaiola’ you are inviting direct comparison with every neighborhood pasta shop, trattoria or restaurant anywhere in the world that your customers may have been. You can be conjuring memories of expensive Italian holidays, or any of the thousands of recipes in print which use the same culinary terms. Call me a coward, but I’d always rather stay out of it. I believe in borrowing ideas from tradition, but would rather call the food what it is, and hopefully it will be good enough to talk for itself.
Ironically though, the definition of authentic ‘Boscaiola’ is not set it stone, and unlike many Italian sauces, the regional origin is not that distinct. In the context of food ‘Boscaila’ means ‘of the forrest’ – a reference to its most common ingredient – wild mushrooms. Literally though, ‘Boscaiolo’ means ‘woodman’ or ‘lumberjack’. It is quaint, but I’ve always liked the lumberjack connection to Boscaiola. It is a hearty & rustic collection of flavours and is always immensely satisfying. I think if I spent all day cutting down trees, this is the type of meal I’d like to come home to.
You can use any pasta that you like for this, but I tend towards the rule that short, spiral or tubular pastas should be served with rich tomato sauces, while long pastas work really well with sticky creamy or olive oil based sauces.
Interestingly enough, the name Pappardelle derives from the verb “pappare,”- to gobble up. Perfect for the lumberjack.
It takes about 7 minutes from start to finish.
Ingredients
(Serves 1)
The Sauce:
1. In a hot pan, lightly saute the bacon, mushrooms & leeks for about 1 minute, or until the bacon crispens slightly, the mushrooms moisten, and the leeks go limp.
2. Add the crushed garlic and deglaze with the white wine.
3. When the wine has reduced in volume by about half (depending on the heat in your pan this should take anywhere from 20-40 seconds) add the cream, salt & pepper & bring to the boil.
4. Once the cream starts to bubble, it will slowly reduce. There is no time guideline for this, you just need to watch the sauce and turn it off when it has reached the desired consistency. For the best result, the sauce should be thick enough to stick to pasta, but runny enough to mix through it easily. If you reduce it too far, you can add a little cream.
The Pasta:
All pasta types & brands are different, so you should always follow the instructions on the packet carefully.
All pasta should be cooked in lightly salted water.
For this dish at red grapevine, we use Barilla’s Pappardelle Uovo from their specialty range. This is not available in a lot of supermarkets, but there are many great pappardelle varieties that are. If you live close to somewhere that sells fresh egg pasta than even better.
N.B. If you are fairly confident with the coordinating the cooking, you can save time by cook the pasta while you make the sauce, but it is quite easy to overcook the pasta this way (which is an irretrievable disaster). If you have an extra few minutes, cook the sauce first, put it to one side, and then cook the pasta.
Once both are ready, drain the pasta, and add the pasta to the sauce and mix. ALWAYS add the pasta to the sauce, and never the sauce to the pasta.
Good luck. Any queries or feedback please feel free to use the comments below.
