Low Fat Pasta Boscaiola Recipes

PASTA ALLA BOSCAIOLA

Steps:

• Place a large pot of water on to boil for pasta.
• Place dry mushrooms in stock in a saucepan and bring to low boil to reconstitute. Reduce stock by half, then set aside.
• Heat 1 tablespoon EVOO in a large pan over medium-high heat, add pancetta, guanciale or sausage and render. When pancetta starts to brown, add the fresh mushrooms.
• Strip and finely chop rosemary. Strip and stack sage leaves and very thinly slice. Add shallots, garlic, salt, pepper and herbs to fresh mushrooms, add 1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil and stir 2 to 3 minutes. Add white wine and reduce by half. Add tomatoes and passata. Remove porcini mushrooms with slotted spoon from stock and add all but the last few tablespoons of stock (where grit may have settled) to the sauce. Reduce the heat under sauce to low simmer. Chop porcini mushrooms and add them to the sauce. Add heavy cream if using and stir.
• Add pasta and salt to boiling water and cook pasta 1 minute less than package direction. Reserve 3/4 cup pasta water and drain pasta.
• Return pasta to hot pot, add some pasta water, the cheese, a little EVOO or butter and half of the sauce and toss vigorously 1 full minute to combine. Use more of the hot reserved water as necessary to loosen sauce if it becomes too thick. Serve family style or in shallow bowls topped with remaining sauce. Garnish with parsley.

LOW-FAT PASTA BOSCAIOLA

Steps:

• Cook pasta in a large saucepan as per packet directions until just tender.
• Blend cornflour and 1 tbl of evaporated milk until all lumps have dissolved. Add remaining milk, stock and season with salt & pepper.
• Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. Add bacon and onion and spray lightly with oil. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until golden.
• Add garlic to pan and cook another minute.
• Add mushrooms, cover, and cook for 4 minutes or until tender, stirring every minute.
• Drain pasta and set aside. Place milk mixture in saucepan used for pasta and place over medium heat. Cook, stirring, until sauce just comes to the boil.
• Reduce heat to low and add pasta, bacon mixture and parsley. Toss until heated through and serve with parmesan cheese.

PASTA BOSCAIOLA

Steps:

• In a medium saucepan, stir together the broth and dried porcini. Bring the stock to a simmer over high heat. Then reduce to low, cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until the mushrooms are tender.
• Meanwhile, bring a large pot of generously-salted water to a boil for the pasta.
• Meanwhile, cook the pancetta in a large saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, for about 3-5 minutes or until the fat has rendered. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the pancetta to a clean plate and set aside. Leave about 1.5 tablespoons of the pancetta grease in the pan and discard the rest. (Or if there's not enough grease, add a bit of olive oil at any point while sautéing the veggies.)
• Add the quartered baby bella mushrooms to the pan and sauté in the pancetta grease, stirring occasionally, until browned. Add the shallots, garlic, rosemary, thyme, crushed red pepper flakes, and a few twists of black pepper and sauté for 3 minutes, stirring frequently.
• Gradually pour in the white wine and use a wooden spoon to loosen any browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Add the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, cooked pancetta and stir to combine.
• Meanwhile, transfer the cooked porcini mushrooms to a cutting board and roughly-chop them into bite-sized pieces. Transfer chopped mushrooms to the tomato sauce, along with 1 ½ cups of the porcini broth. (Be sure to filter the broth through a fine-mesh strainer to avoid any silt that may have gathered in the bottom of the pan.)
• Reduce heat to medium-low. Continue to simmer the sauce for about 15 minutes, or however long it takes the pasta to cook.
• Meanwhile, add the pasta to the boiling water and cook until 1 minute shy of al dente. Reserve 1 cup of the starchy pasta water, then drain the pasta.
• Stir the cream into the tomato sauce. Then combine the tomato sauce and cooked pasta in the large stockpot and gently toss for 1-2 minutes until the pasta reaches al dente, adding in a few spoonfuls of the starchy pasta water at a time if needed to thin the sauce. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed.
• Serve. Serve immediately with a generous sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.

QUICK AND CREAMY BOSCAIOLA PASTA (BACON AND MUSHROOM)

Steps:

• Cook the pasta in a large saucepan of rapidly boiling salted water until 'al dente'. Drain, return to the pan, and keep warm.
• While the pasta is cooking, heat the oil in a large frying pan, add the bacon and mushroom, and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes, or until golden brown.
• Stir in a little of the cream, and scrape the wooden spoon on the bottom of the pan to dislodge any bacon that has stuck.
• Add the remaining cream, bring to the boil, and cook over high heat for 15 minutes, OR until the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
• Stir the spring onion through the mixture.
• Pour the sauce over the pasta, and toss to combine.
• Serve sprinkled with the parsley.