Spaghetti with Porcini Mushrooms, Bacon and Tomatoes

Name: Spaghetti with Mushrooms and Bacon Recipe
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 45 min
Cuisine: Italian cuisine
Ingredients: Spaghetti 250 g; Water for cooking the pasta 2 l; Salt for cooking the pasta 10 g (5 g per 1 l of water, as the bacon sauce is salty); Porcini mushrooms 150 g; Pancetta (bacon or smoked pork fat) 100 g; Olive oil 1 tbsp (if the bacon is lean) and more for dressing, if you like; Ripe tomatoes 2; Parsley, olives 1-2 sprigs; Salt, black pepper to taste

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45 mins

In porcini season, one of the tastiest breakfast dishes is probably Italian pasta with a porcini mushroom sauce. Spaghetti with mushrooms made from fresh porcini, for example, is a hearty dish and very simple to cook.

Long ago we could not have imagined that there are so many kinds of pasta, and that it does not stop at shells, elbows and vermicelli. Few people know the names of all the Italian pasta shapes, including the variant names, and only a handful can tell one pasta from another by sight. That hardly applies to the Italians, who invented every shape and use them so well. The different types are fairly easy to recognize by shape and size; you just need to get used to it. In the name itself, the ending shows the size, from large to small: oni, ette (etti), ini.

I am sure everyone knows spaghetti. Spaghetti is pasta in the form of long, thin strands of dough with a round cross-section. In modern cooking the standard length is 25 cm, although it used to be 0.5 m. The thickness determines the name: spaghettini are thin and spaghettoni are thick. There is also excellent hair-thin spaghetti called capellini. By the way, spaghetti with chicken works better with thicker pasta.

Yes, pasta is just dough, and the sauce defines the taste. When you start making a sauce for spaghetti, always go by the seasonal ingredients available. Porcini, pancetta (bacon or smoked pork fat), fresh herbs and ripe tomatoes make an excellent set for a breakfast.

Ingredients

2 servings

Spaghetti 250 g
Water for cooking the pasta 2 l
Salt for cooking the pasta 10 g (5 g per 1 l of water, as the bacon sauce is salty)

Porcini mushrooms 150 g
Pancetta (bacon or smoked pork fat) 100 g
Olive oil 1 tbsp (if the bacon is lean) and more for dressing, if you like
Ripe tomatoes 2
Parsley, olives 1-2 sprigs
Salt, black pepper to taste

Step-by-step recipe

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Pasta

Which kind of spaghetti to cook is up to you; with mushrooms it turns out great either way. We use ordinary spaghetti about 2 mm thick.

Boil the spaghetti until al dente. In a large pot, bring 2 l of water to a boil over high heat, add salt at 5 g per liter, that is 10 g, and cook the spaghetti until done. The cooking time is given on the package and guarantees an al dente texture. Do not overcook the pasta: it swells easily and becomes sticky.
It is best to put the water on right away and add the spaghetti when the mushrooms and bacon start to stew, so the pasta is ready just in time for the sauce.

Mushroom and bacon sauce

While the water comes to a boil and the pasta cooks, we will make the sauce.

Boil the porcini. Clean fresh mushrooms of sand and forest debris, wash them and boil for 10 minutes in plain water. Do not add salt or spices.
By the way, porcini are called white mushrooms because they do not darken when cooked. If your porcini were frozen after boiling, as a homemade preparation, thaw and rinse them.
Cut the pancetta. Remove the rind and cut into cubes. Pancetta can be replaced with bacon or smoked pork fat.
Fry the bacon until golden. In a heated frying pan over medium heat, fry the bacon until the fat renders out. If the bacon is lean, you can make an exception and add 1 tbsp of olive oil. Fry the bacon until it forms a golden crust and is lightly crisp.

Fry the mushrooms with the bacon. Cut the boiled porcini into large slices, add them to the fried bacon and keep frying everything together for 5 minutes over medium heat.
Simmer the mushrooms under a lid. Season the mushrooms and bacon with salt and pepper to taste. Reduce the heat to the minimum, cover the pan with a lid and simmer the mushrooms for 6-7 minutes.

Combining with the pasta

Add the boiled spaghetti to the mushrooms and heat through under a lid. Drain the spaghetti and transfer it to the pan. If the dish seems a little dry to you, add a little olive oil or flavored oil from a homemade preparation, such as peppers in oil.
Keep the spaghetti under the lid over very low heat for up to 10 minutes, no more.

Serving

Put the spaghetti with mushrooms on plates. Garnish the dish with sprigs of parsley and arrange fresh tomatoes, cut into thin slices, on top.
If you like, you can add a little more black pepper.
Many will say you should sprinkle it with Parmesan. You can, I suppose, but the flavor of the mushrooms is self-sufficient on its own, and cheese is probably unnecessary there.

Calories and macros

465 kcal

Serving ≈ 480 g

Protein16 g15% of kcal
Fat2 g4% of kcal
Carbs89 g81% of kcal

100 g97 kcalProtein 3.4 gFat 0.4 gCarbs 18.6 g

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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Spaghetti with Porcini Mushrooms, Bacon and Tomatoes

Ingredients

For the pasta

For the sauce and serving