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Pasta Divina
Place several handfuls of dried Porcini mushrooms to rehydrate in a quart of organic chicken stock that has just begun to boil gently. Turn off the flame and leave the mushrooms to steep with the top tightly covered for about ten minutes. Next, remove them from the pot with a slotted spoon into a glass jar and cover in olive oil to save for another day.
Now reheat the mushroom-broth to a boil. Drop in a couple handfuls of sun-dried tomatoes, turn off the flame, and let them steep for another ten minutes. Remove the softened tomatoes from the broth, mince them thoroughly, and return them to the broth. This mingled mushroom and tomato stock is the base of your sauce.
Let it simmer over a low-flame and reduce for the next half an hour as you bake a large eggplant at a high heat until it explodes. That’s right, due to the expansion of internal gases, the humble eggplant will transform itself from a placid purple fruit to a terrifying weapon of destruction. You will hear a soft hollow pop in the oven that will signal that the eggplant has succumbed to the heat.
Retrieve your prize and separate the sweet, smoky caramelized eggplant-flesh from the dry, tattered skin left hanging in shreds. Pulverize the flesh with your palm across the back of a heavy knife atop your choppingboard until you have a rough puree.
During the half hour or so that it took the eggplant to become explosive, you held a pair of red peppers on a fork above the open-flame in a quiet meditation until they began to blacken at the edges. You heard the pepper wheeze and pop as you enjoyed the first few whiffs of its smoky-sweet aroma. You then placed each charred pepper in a closed paper bag and let it steam for a minute or two before peeling, chopping, and tossing the succulent and highly aromatic peppers with two chopped red onions and a few minced lobes of fresh green garlic into a large pan with ample extra-virgin olive oil and a pinch of sea-salt.
Once the onions and peppers begin to caramelize add the pulverized eggplant and stir with a long wooden spoon until the residual moisture begins to dissipate and it begins to thicken and sweeten. Add 1 cup of the mushroom/tomato infusion, one small can of organic tomato paste, and a handful of minced fresh basil. Check that you are employing an low flame of easy fire lest all your labor be misspent. Cover and simmer for five minutes. Now add two cups of peeled chopped heirloom tomatoes, a bit of sea-salt, red pepper flakes, olive oil and a small handful of minced herbs such as sage, thyme, rosemary, and oregano. Simmer uncovered for a quarter of an hour, occasionally encouraging the sauce with a long wooden spoon. Next, toss in a qurter-cup of minced capers, half-a cup of chopped Sicilian olives, and half a cup of good red wine.
Cover and let another quarter of an hour pass as you sip some of the wine. Add a half cup of finely chopped flat-leaf parsley, a cup or two of loosely chopped crimini mushrooms, another small handful of reserved herbs, a third of a cup more stock and lots of fresh ground pepper. Cover for a final quarter-hour. Season once more to taste and then pour the entire brimming saucepan into an extra-large bowl of steaming Penne pasta, already mixed with a splash of olive oil and a cup of grated Pecorino cheese. Gently combine the pasta with the sauce and then top with yet more cheese when serving with a simple arugala salad dressed simply with salt, pepper, extra-virgin olive oil and aged balsamic vinegar.
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