Mushrooms with Tomato (Mario's recipe)

This is a sauce for all sorts of pasta and the quantity is enough for 6-8

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

1 kilo of porcini mushrooms, small and hard
2 ripe tomatoes
1 onion
3 cloves of garlic
oregano, marjoram and thyme
75 ml olive oil
salt and pepper

Method

Clean the mushrooms to get rid of all the earth, wash and dry very well on a towel

Wash the tomatoes and peel off the skin

Cut the onions

Clean the garlic and squash

Put in a fry pan the oil, the onions and the garlic, then the tomatoes

Let the tomatoes dry out a bit and then add the chopped mushrooms, salt and pepper and the herbs.

Cook very fast for ten minutes

This is a sauce for all sorts of pasta - Basic Pasta Preparations

Hints

Drying Mushrooms

Silvana's mother used to buy mushrooms at the market and thread a string through them with a big needle (she had needles of all shapes) and then leave them strung up to dry for a few weeks or months. She would use the button variety for this and, although they are normally very mild, after drying, their flavour developed quite strongly.

"My mother had a special room for all this, for salamis as well. The room allowed in air from only one side. She used to dry capsicums, chilli, mushrooms and sausages and other vegetables according to the season"

Porcini Substitute

As the imported porcini are so expensive, you can use fresh Swiss brown mushrooms (which you can also pre-dry at home- see above- to intensify their flavour) and combine with Star brand porcini cube. Dissolve cube in water and then sprinkle over