There doesn’t seem to be a specific pasta ordained for this sauce, though most recipes lean towards something short and tubular, or short and twisted, or something similar – that’s to say, a fairly hearty pasta. I learned this one with pennette rigate – short, narrow quills, without ridges, but really, penne, pennette, trofie, maybe even rigatoni, would all work here. The rest of the ingredients are some quartered baby portobellos, a finely chopped shallot (or cippoline onion), some dice smoked bacon (and yes, bacon, not guanciale, for this one), tomato passata, a little bit of heavy cream (and yes, actual cream, not panna di cucina), and some grated cheese (I had grana padano) and chopped parsley.
Over low heat, render the bacon and cook until lovely and crisp. Remove the bacon and set aside, leave the fat in the pan.
Cook the shallot or onion in the fat until it’s soft and translucent. If there’s not enough fat from your bacon, you can add a splash of olive oil.
Add the mushrooms (portobellos are common, the small ones, in Italy, are called cremini, but really, any, or a mix, of mushrooms are fine for this dish). Cook them until they’ve given up their liquid, reduce that until the mushrooms start to brown. I add a pinch of salt and quite a few grinds of black pepper while the mushrooms are cooking. While they’re cooking, I drop the pasta into boiling salted water.
Add the tomato passata and cook down until thickened.
Add the cream and most of the bacon in (reserve a few pieces just to be decorative and crispy on top). Cook down until thick.
Add the pasta when it’s about two minutes shy of done, along with a ladle or two of the pasta water. Finish cooking in the sauce and pasta water until it all thickens up and the pasta is perfectly al dente.
Turn off the heat and add the cheese and parsley and mix in. Adjust the seasoning – for me it doesn’t need more salt, between the pasta water, bacon, and cheese; but I did add a bunch more grinds of black pepper.
And, serve, garnished with the reserved pieces of bacon. You could grate some more cheese over the top, sprinkle some more parsley, but I think it’s just fine as is at this point.
Absolutely delicious. And unlike many mushroom cream sauces, it uses a small amount, and that slight cloying effect of the cream is offset by the tomato. When it comes to mushroom pastas, this one ranks up there among my favorites.
