Porcini & Sausage White wine Pasta

Ingredients (2 people portion):

  • 1 bulb of roasted garlic

  • 1 cup of white wine

  • 4 pieces of dried porcini

  • 3 grounded sausage (I used Sloane’s pork and apple)

  • 150g Pasta

  • 1/4 cup of heavy cream

  • 1/4 cup of freshly grated parmesan cheese

  • 1/4 cup of fresh oregano

  • Red chili (optional)

  • Salt

  • Pepper

  • 3 tbsp Olive oil

How to:

  1. In a pan on medium heat, pour olive oil and roasted garlic. Mash the roasted garlic so that the flavors are infused into the oil.

  2. Add your ground sausage into the mix. Make sure that they are pushed against the pan and spreaded out. Leave the sausage be for a round 1- 2 minutes so that the sides become crispy and then stir to mix everything together.

  3. Add white wine and place pan on high heat so that it is reduced. While waiting for white wine to reduce, do not stir as it could trap the alcohol from being cooked off.

  4. Add pasta (depending on your style you could cook it for 2-3 minutes) into the pan. Pour in 3 cups of pasta water. At this stage you are cooking your pasta in the sauce. Continue to add pasta water so that the pasta is properly cooked.

  5. Immediately after adding pasta, add porcini. The dried porcini will cook with the pasta, allowing the flavors to be infused thoroughly.

  6. Add oregano, cream, and parmesan and mix thoroughly. The pan should now be on low heat. Make sure the pasta cooks to it aldente temperature (ideally 1 minute before).

  7. Add salt and pepper where necessary.

  8. Enjoy!

Story Time:

I am very happy with this creation but I do not think this would be a crowd favorite. It’s a deeply personal dish, probably a dish that reminds me of the times I am stuck in Evanston and the cold.

By all intents and purposes, this dish is not Italian. The only Italian aspect is Barilla pasta. I am a big fan of white wine sauce. Back when I took classes at Gamberro Rosso, I had this one dish I fell in love with. It was foamed artichoke cream with crispy ground lamb topped with shaved truffle. I fell in love with the dish on day one and til now I still do not know if I can recreate it… so I had to come up with something similar but with simpler ingredients. Oregano, sausages, and white wine. (Cream is in there as well).

To be fair, after you’ve cooked and eaten a particular set of cuisine (pasta) for a very long time, you generally will hit a plateau where tongue becomes desensitized and less surprised by flavors. Don’t take me wrong, I still really enjoy a great plate of pasta. A well done carbonara is a well done carbonara.

This pasta dish is a surprise for me. I did not expect the flavors to come together so well and also offer multiple layers of taste. The way I describe this dish to someone enjoying a coursed out meal would be:

This is a deeply midwest dish. What does that mean? Flavors are subtle. This dish will never win over a good papaya salad but will make you feel at home when the temperature is way too cold.

You’ll start off by tasting the cream and realize there’s a bit of porcini. However, the dish won’t stop there because roasted garlic will come in and say a soft hello while handing over its mic to the texture of sausage and oregano. As you’re about to finish your bite, you’ll smell a tiny hint of parmesarn with an after taste of whine wine, which brings the whole dish together.

Intermediate, MeatPrawee Nonthapunpasta