Orecchiette ai Porcini alla Pugliese, a southern Italian recipe from Oreste, deep flavored and requires several hours of cooking.
- 6 fresh large tomatoes
- 8 cloves of garlic
- 1 onion
- 4 Apulian red fresh hot chili peppers a botticella (US substitution: Red Bonnett, Jamaican hot peppers, Red Fresno)
- Italian Sausage
- Black pepper
- Dried Porcini Mushrooms
- Ricotta di pecora salata (sheep ricotta) or Pecorino Romano
Chop the tomatoes getting rid of any white part, chop two of the
red chillies retaining their seeds. Chop finely 4-6 cloves of garlic.
Saute` the garlic, then add the chopped chillies, then the tomatoes, then salt and at least one spoon of ground black pepper. Raise the heat and stir vigorously for few minutes. then lower the heat the medium low, cover and simmer, stir occasionally.
Cook at least one hour. Once thicker, blend it, and put it into a bowl.
Separately, revive the porcini in about two cups of water, with salt
and black pepper. Cook for about 20 minutes at low heat, covered.
Then let them sit in the water for other 20 minutes. Then drain them,
and keep the broth. If properly done, the broth has to be very dark,
extremely flavorful.
Saute the finely chopped onion and two more garlic cloves adding a little at a time the broth from the porcini. keep doing it until the sauteed garlic/onion has absorbed most of the broth. save only a little of the broth ( a couple of spoons) for the end.
Then add the tomato sauce, then the porcini, and cook together at low
heat, uncovered, for about 45 minutes, simmering. Finally add the sausage and keep cooking at very low heat for about ten-15 more minutes. At the very end, add the remaining porcini broth (must be a couple of spoons, very brown and thick), mix well, and stop cooking.
Side hot sauce:
Separately, roast the remaining hot chillies, chopped and with their
seeds, for few seconds.. Then put them into a blender with
one quarter of a fresh tomato, 2 cloves of garlic, a pinch of salt,
and olive oil. Blend until you get a frothy, orange-red bright sauce.
Cook the pasta, drain it, put it into the same pot where the sauce has been made
and stir well, with low heat, for about 30 seconds.
Serve immediately, grate some sheep ricotta or pecorino and cover with a spoon
of the hot sauce..
Wines: Must be Apulian Reds, Salice Salentino or Primitivo but also Aglianico del Vulture (from Basilicata, the neighboring region to the west) is a very good choice
