campanelle alla boscaiola

So here is my second attempt at the boscaiola pasta. First of, it tasted much better this time ;-)

Few things I did differently:
1) In addition to the porcini, I also used half a cup of each white and maitake mushrooms;
2) I used three fresh roma tomatoes plus three table spoons of Muir Glen's Portobello Mushroom pasta sauce;
3) Campanelle was used instead of fenne or cavatappi (which I have yet to find in Davis!).

In regards to the first two points here are my two cents:
1) Addition of fresh mushrooms really adds flavour. There is not doubt that porcini is extremely aromatic, but its taste is less conspicuous by comparison. I think this is mainly because the fragrance is so powerful that one naturally expected something of an equal par on the palate. The maitake definitely hits the right note. On top of the nutty taste, the meaty texture of this mushroom also help to improve this dish nicely.
2) I do not mean to sound like a snob, but I am generally adversed to premade pasta sauces. This is mainly because I believe one can easily make simple sauces at home that can taste as good or, more likely, much better than prepackaged ones. The key is to always have the right ingredients on hand. And that was my problem: I had hoped three roma tomatoes would have been juicy enough but they weren't and I didn't have extra tomatoes and I had ran out of tomato pasta (pure ones with nothing added). Instead there was a bottle of MG's pasta sauce in the fridge (we won't dwell on how it got there). Three table-spoons was enough with about 1/4 cup of water to dilute it then simmered down.

Like I said, it turned out great!

I haven't mentioned wines in past posts, but I thought I should start. We paired this dish with a 2005 Cline Cashmere. It is a decent wine with lots of berries and a very subtle finishing which together made it a good pair with the pasta.