Pappardelle with Mushroom Ragout
I have been stumbling across photos of pappardelle with ragout on Instagram and online recently, and I get stuck on them every time. This dish looks like pure comfort! I finally made a vegan version a few weeks ago and cooked the ragout with mushrooms. And oh my goodness, this pasta tastes like a bed of mushrooms that I don't want to get up from, wrapped up under a warming blanket of pappardelle! Wow!
If you're now thinking that you need ten different types of mushrooms or that you need to go out into the forest yourself: No worries, you can relax, as the recipe is really simple. For the fresh mushrooms, white and brown button mushrooms are perfect, king oyster mushrooms give the dish a 'meaty' note thanks to their consistency and if chanterelles or fresh porcini mushrooms are available, be sure to use them too! A mix of different varieties also works wonderfully.
If you don't have dried mushrooms or want to save time, you can also just use fresh mushrooms and vegetable stock instead of mushroom stock, but for a more intense flavor, we recommend using dried mushrooms. You can find them in almost every large supermarket.
Pappardelle with Mushroom Ragout
Ingredients
- 400 g (14 oz) pappardelle
- 30 g (1 oz) dried porcini mushrooms
- 250 ml (1 cup) hot water
- 300 g (10.5 oz) fresh mushrooms of your choice (e.g., button mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, ...)
- 2 onions
- 2 garlic cloves
- 3 sprigs thyme
- 5 sage leaves
- 2 tbsp (1 oz) tomato paste
- 1 tbsp (0.5 oz) mustard
- 200 ml (0.75 cup) vegan red wine
- salt
- pepper
- olive oil for frying
- cress for sprinkling
Instructions
Soak the dried porcini mushrooms in hot water for 30 minutes. In the meantime, clean and chop the fresh mushrooms into small pieces, peel and finely dice the onions, and finely chop the garlic cloves. Once the dried porcini mushrooms are soft, remove them from the broth and also chop them into small pieces. Definitely keep the porcini broth and don't pour it away!
Heat olive oil in a pan and sauté the onions and garlic cloves over medium heat until the onion cubes are translucent. Add fresh and dried mushrooms. Finely chop the thyme and sage leaves, also add them, and fry everything for 10 minutes.
Add tomato paste and mustard and fry for another 3 minutes. Then deglaze with red wine and let it reduce over medium heat for 5 minutes. Now add the mushroom broth from the dried mushrooms and season generously with salt and pepper. Simmer everything together until the pasta is ready. Season to taste again just before the end.
In the meantime, cook the pappardelle al dente in salted boiling water. Once done, drain but catch some of the cooking water. Add the pasta directly to the sauce and toss well. Add enough pasta cooking water until a creamy mushroom sauce forms that coats the pasta. Sprinkle with cress before serving.
