Pappardelle with cep and truffle

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes.

The ingredients: for 6 persons

• 550 g pappardelle
• 150 g grated parmesan
• 300 g cooked ham
• 80g dried cep
• 1 cube butter
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tbsp. of wild broth paste
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 can chopped tomatoes (400 g)
• 1 can passata (500 g pureed tomatoes)
• 1dl cream (optional)
• black pepper & salt
• truffle or 3 tbsp. truffle oil.

The work:

First thing to do is to drown the dried mushrooms in lukewarm water. They need to absorb water for at least 15 minutes. After 15 minutes (or longer) you drain the mushrooms but make sure to collect the brown water in a small cooking pot.

Add the wild bouillon paste to the liquid and boil it down until it is really concentrated. You need a small cup of condensed liquid at the end of the process.

In the meantime, heat the oil and the butter in a pan and add the pressed garlic. Fry for a couple of minutes but make sure it does not get brown. After 3 minutes you add the drained mushrooms. Stir each time you add something, to mix the ingredients. After another 3 minutes add the ham, and after another 4 minutes add the chopped tomatoes and the passata. Season the sauce with pepper, salt and truffle or truffle oil. Let the sauce cook softly for 15-20 minutes. When the condensed stock is ready, add it to the sauce as well.

Optionally add cream to the sauce a couple of minutes before the end of the cooking time; always do this on low fire. Cream should not be boiled.

Cook your pasta al dente. Mix the pasta with the sauce and serve with some parmesan on top.

The Secret:

The reduced mushroom liquid is the secret of the success here. Take your time to reduce the liquid, it will make a huge difference.

The Tip:

You can make this recipe with real truffle and real fresh cep. Both are really hard or even impossible to find in a suburban town like ours and also influence the cost of this diner a lot. The truffle oil and dried cep are much easier to come by and much easier in your pocket.

We have a disagreement at home about using cream or not in this dish. OK, it adds extra fat to the recipe, but also smoothness in taste. The small picture is without cream. Try it out to find out your personal preference.

As you can see in our pictures, if there is no pappardelle in the house, another pasta will do fine.