Woodsy Warming Penne Boscaiola Recipe

It's well known that nobody does pasta like the Italians, and, with the sheer scope and variety of pasta dishes out there, there will always be something for everyone. If you happen to enjoy rich, creamy tomato sauces, with flavors of mushroom and pancetta, then this recipe is the one for you. A classic Italian dish, boscaiola comes from the word "bosco" which means forest, while a "boscaiolo" is a lumberjack or forest ranger (via The Pasta Project). French cuisine also has "forestier" and "forestière" to describe the same concept of dishes that have a creamy mushroom sauce, the idea being that there are lots of mushrooms available in the forest, and so 'forest-style' dishes would revolve around fungi. 

Most traditional boscaiola dishes contain porcini mushrooms, well known for their deeply earthy savory flavor, and this recipe is no exception. In this take on boscaiola, Tasting Table recipe developer Jennine Rye uses both dried porcini mushrooms soaked in white wine and mixed wild mushrooms to make a wonderfully rich and hearty pasta dish. Served with penne pasta, this makes the perfect accompaniment to the chunky boscaiola sauce ingredients, making a warming and flavorful dish that will be ready on the table in just one hour. 

To make this woodsy warming penne boscaiola recipe, first, you will need to gather the ingredients. You will need dried porcini mushrooms, mixed wild mushrooms, white wine, pancetta or bacon, cooking oil, an onion, garlic, thyme, oregano, chopped tomatoes, tomato purée, sugar, penne pasta, cream, parsley, salt, and pepper.

Add the dried porcini mushrooms to a bowl and pour the white wine over them, then leave for 30 minutes until the mushrooms are soft.

Drain the mushrooms and reserve the white wine, carefully allowing the gritty sediment from the porcini mushrooms to settle at the bottom of the bowl before pouring out the wine. Discard the sediment and set the wine to one side.

Heat up a heavy bottomed pan to a medium heat and fry the cubed pancetta for 5 to 6 minutes until it is golden. Remove from the pan and set to one side.

Add the cooking oil to the pan and cook the chopped onion, sliced wild mushrooms, and the garlic for 5 minutes until soft.

Return the cooked pancetta to the pan along with the drained porcini mushrooms, the fresh thyme sprigs and the dried oregano. Mix everything together.

Add the tinned tomatoes to the pan along with the reserved white wine and the sugar. Season well with salt and pepper and leave everything to simmer gently for 10 minutes.

Heat up a large pot of salted water and add the dried penne. Cook for 10 minutes or according to the packets instructions until al dente, and then drain, reserving 1 cup of pasta water.

Stir the cream into the pasta sauce, and then add the drained penne to the pasta sauce and mix everything together, adding pasta water as needed to create a smooth sauce that coats the pasta shapes.

Serve the penne boscaiola hot and fresh from the pan, topped with chopped fresh parsley and grated Parmesan, to taste.

There are countless different types of pasta, and while there is scope to substitute the penne in this recipe for an alternative shape, there are a couple of things to bear in mind. Different shapes of pasta are intended for different types of sauces, depending on its consistency. Lighter sauces with smaller, less chunky ingredients pair best with longer, thinner pasta shapes such as spaghetti, linguine and tagliatelle.

Because this dish has large chunks in the form of the mushrooms and the pancetta, it is best suited to solid short shaped pastas, like the penne Rye has used. Other similar pasta shapes that you could use instead include conchiglie, ditalini, or fusilli. Another element to consider is that some pastas act as little parcels for other ingredients, like ravioli, tortellini, and mezzelune. While you could consider pairing this sauce with a type of filled pasta, it might make for a bit of an overwhelming mouthful due to the richly flavored boscaiola sauce. If you do choose to pair this sauce with a stuffed pasta, we recommend keeping the filling mild, such as spinach and ricotta. 

In this recipe, white wine is used to rehydrate the porcini mushrooms, which infuses them with a crisp acidity and adds an extra mushroomy depth of flavor to the dish through the wine. While this addition adds a lot of flavor to the resulting dish, it is perfectly possible to substitute the ingredient if you don't have any white wine to hand, or prefer to keep your meals alcohol-free — it isn't a compulsory ingredient. 

Red wine would make a delicious addition to penne boscaiola, pairing well with the richness and heartiness of the dish. However, if you prefer to avoid alcohol together, we recommend simply swapping out the wine with your choice of stock. The dried mushrooms will need to be rehydrated, and this is a great chance to enhance the flavor of the dish, but for simplicity's sake, you could easily do this step simply using water. The more flavorful option would be a stock of your choice, such as chicken, vegetable, or mushroom. Remember to keep whatever you have used to rehydrate the mushrooms and add it to the tomatoes and sugar in place of the wine when making the sauce.