You Need to Make This Vegetarian Bolognese

Hello, everyone! Welcome to my little cooking/baking blog. I love finding new recipes. So much so that when I print one off a blog, or tear one of out a magazine or newspaper, it goes right into a binder. As of now, I have six binders. Yes, six. Four are comprised entirely of baking recipes.

As you can imagine, these recipes pile up. It's time to buckle down and start making some of these suckers. Join me on my journey as I attempt to whittle my ridiculous collection down.

Today I'm sharing a recipe I've made before, many times. It's in my "Approved Recipes" binder and is crinkled and stained and full of love.

It's Cooking Light's Vegetarian Bolognese with Whole-Wheat Penne.

(Sorry for the horrible lighting, but my kitchen does not care about shadows.)

Anyway, I discovered this recipe in the December 2009 issue and this was around the time my sister was a vegetarian. We all loved meat bolognese and figured it couldn't hurt giving the vegetarian version a try. And it didn't hurt at all, because this recipe is yummy. You must make it.

A word of warning, though. If you don't like mushrooms, skip this one. It's heavy on them. While I'm not a huge fan, I can make an exception for this sauce because the flavors meld so beautifully. But you can still taste the fungi (that sounds really gross, doesn't it?)

If you're not afraid of mushrooms and love a good hearty sauce, I highly recommend you make this!

Vegetarian Bolognese with Whole-Wheat Penne

Serves 6

Ingredients

¼ cup dried porcini mushrooms (about ¼ ounce)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 ½ cups finely chopped onion

½ cup finely chopped carrot

½ cup finely chopped celery

1 (8-ounce) package cremini mushrooms, finely chopped

½ cup dry red wine

¼ cup warm water

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 (28-ounce) can organic crushed tomatoes with basil, undrained

1 (2-inch) piece Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese rind

12 ounces uncooked whole-wheat penne

½ cup (2 ounces) shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano

1.       Place dried mushrooms in a spice or coffee grinder and process until finely ground.

2.       Heat oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion, carrot, celery, and mushrooms then sauté for 10 minutes. Add wine, simmer 2 minutes or until liquid almost evaporates. Add ¼ cup warm water and next 4 ingredients (through cheese rind) to onion mixture. Stir in ground porcini. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 40 minutes. Keep warm and remove rind then discard it.

3.       Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Place 1 cup of pasta in each of 6 bowls, then top each portion with ¾ cup sauce and 1 tablespoon cheese.