3-Ingredient Pappardelle Boscaiola
Pasta boscaiola is a traditional winter pasta dish from central Italy made with earthy ingredients foraged from the woods like mushrooms, paired with locally made sausage and other herbs. Boscaiola means “woodcutter”, referring to the woodsman or hunter who would bring ingredients home to make this hearty pasta throughout Italian history.In my version of pasta boscaiola, I use pappardelle and keep the ingredients to dried porcini mushrooms, mascarpone cheese and sausage, making it easy to prepare with little at hand.
Ingredients
- 3 sausages in their casings
- 1/2 cup mascarpone cheese (around 220 g)
- 1 oz dried porcini mushrooms (28 g)
- 12 oz dried pappardelle pasta (350 g)
Instructions
- Set a large pot of water to boil. Put the dried porcini mushrooms in a small bowl or glass and add enough water to barely cover them.
- Remove the sausage from its casing and crumble the meat into a sauté pan set over medium heat. Cook the meat until lightly brown and almost cooked through, 3-4 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and stir in the mascarpone cheese. When the mushrooms are soft, use a pair of kitchen scissors to cut them into small pieces or remove them from the water, ringing out any extra liquid and chopping well. Return chopped mushrooms and hydration liquid into the pan with the sausage and mascarpone, scraping the bottom of the pan to remove any browned bits of sausage. Season with lots of freshly ground black pepper.
- Cook the pasta according to the package instructions al dente. Right before draining, reserve a cup of the starchy pasta cooking water
- Turn the sauté pan on and add the drained pasta directly over medium-low heat. Toss the pasta with the boscaiola sauce. If the sauce is too dry, add a bit of the starchy pasta water to thin out the sauce.
- Serve immediately with freshly grated parmesan cheese.
Notes
- Make this pappardelle boscaiola gluten-free by using your favorite gluten-free pasta in place of pappardelle.
- Be sure to undercook your pasta al dente or with a slight bite to it, as it will continue to cook when you dress it with the boscaiola sauce over low heat.
- You can easily make the boscaiola sauce a couple of days ahead of time and reheat when you are ready to cook the pasta.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!