Pasta with Porcini and Caramelized Onion Sauce

If the title doesn't make your mouth water, the rest of the recipe will. This is one of the amazing recipes that are put together by Julie Piatt and Rich Roll (both vegan rock stars) in their cookbook "The Plantpower Way: Italia". (Shout out to my good friend who bought me this book - thank you, you know me so well). Nothing is more alluring to me than Italian food made by people who understand how to make a vegan recipe that is satisfying and truly decadent...and no one does that better than Julie Piatt and Rich Roll. I am a big fan of these two and listen to The Rich Roll Podcast every morning while I run. If you have not read Rich Roll's book "Finding Ultra", please add it to your list. Incredible.

I had not made the Pasta with Porcini and Caramelized Onion Sauce before, but just the title made me happy, so I thought we should try it today.

Ingredients:

1 pkg pasta (I used fettucini)

1 cup dried porcini mushrooms, softened in 1 cup boiling water (I did not have porcini mushrooms, only fresh cremini...so I sliced and sauteed the cremini mushrooms, poured the mushrooms and water that extracted in a measuring cup and filled to 2 cups total with hot water).

2 tbsp olive oil

1 sliced small yellow onion

2 cloves fresh garlic, chopped

1 pint cherry tomatoes, sliced in half (I had grape tomatoes - same thing in essence)

1 cup red wine (I used pinot noir)

5 sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil

2 tbsp oregano

2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tsp maple syrup/agave

Get that pasta cooking in some boiling water.

The sauce is the magic of this recipe. The onions are caramelized over medium heat with the olive oil for 5 min before adding the garlic. Then you saute for another 2 min. Then, the magic....add the sliced cherry tomatoes and wine, and begin to reduce....This will fill your house with the MOST amazing smell. I cooked this until almost all the liquid was cooked off.

Then, into a blender goes the mushroom mix, the onion/garlic/tomato/wine miracle, the sun-dried tomatoes, oregano, salt, pepper and syrup. Mix until smooth (which did not take long for me).

Pour this incredible sauce over the prepared pasta and prepare to be amazed.

Vegan review: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ This is INCREDIBLE. Seriously, I spent a lot of time after dinner thinking about other things I could pour this sauce over (Zucchini noodles? In a lasagne? Mixed with roasted veggies?).

Simplicity: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Surprisingly easy to make. This is the kind of recipe I would gloss over before this blog, thinking it was too complex. I'm glad I gave it a try. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is I could not find porcini mushrooms. I thought the cremini did just fine in their place, though, and I need to work on feeling ok with substitutions (Type A personalities struggle with this).

Carnivore rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "That's really good. I'm going to add some chicken to it." Sigh. You can't win 'em all.

Kid rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 1/2 "I really like this!"

Definitely going on the "company's coming" list. Give this a try - you won't be disappointed. And let me know if you think of another good use for this to-die-for sauce!