Chris Makes Mushroom Ragù

Tasting it, you get pops of mushroom,

kind of earthy flavor.

But against this backdrop of this sauce,

that tastes like wonderfully complex,

despite very little cooking time.

[ambient music]

Today, we're making pasta with creamy mushroom ragù.

The thing that I love about it, is that,

whereas like with a meat based ragù,

yes, you can do very short versions of that,

but the best possible ragùs

are the ones that simmer for hours.

Benefits to using mushrooms, they cook really quickly

and they add tons of flavor,

can be a stand-in for meat,

and just be delicious in their own way.

What the hell are you guys doing? [chuckling]

Do I get a piece, like what's happening?

Look at that, it's gorgeous.

Okay, sorry about that.

I'm gonna cut up onion and garlic.

Just get these prepped.

All right, so I'm just dicing this onion.

I'm going pretty fine.

I mean, mainly just 'cause,

the smaller it is, the faster it's gonna cook

and kind of sweat down into,

just that kind of jammy base that we're looking for.

I always like to slice my garlic, generally speaking,

especially in applications like this,

where it's gonna be sweated down in oil

and I want it to cook really evenly.

I'm gonna go grab a Dutch oven, we're gonna get this going.

This is like one cake.

That's another cake, a different cake.

It's a stir-fry, got pasta alla Norma, got dried mushrooms,

that's somebody's science experiment.

So I'm just starting with some olive oil,

and I'm gonna bring the onion over.

I'm also adding a pinch of salt here.

Salt helps draw out moisture.

It helps things break down.

You don't necessarily wanna taste onion.

If you're tasting onion,

it's probably because it's a little bit raw,

and you moved too quickly

and you need to cook them out more next time.

One of the key things here

is you need an adequate amount of fat.

You don't necessarily need things swimming,

but you see, everything is pretty generously coated there.

This is Maitake mushroom.

It's got just the most beautiful flavor.

All of these freely ends,

these exceed at getting crispy.

I'll just tease these pieces apart.

And then for this dish, I'll do just a rough chop.

You know, you're trying to mimic, to a certain degree,

the kind of quality of finely chopped or ground meat.

So leaving a little bit of texture to these pieces

is perfectly fine.

So that's in Maitake.

So I'm just doing a little trim on these cremini stems.

The very ends of the stems

tend to be a little bit dried out,

so they're a little bit tougher.

So I just like to trim that off.

Even though this looks like a lot of mushroom right now,

'cause they are so high in water content,

this is all gonna, you know, these are gonna shrink,

these are gonna concentrate.

So we're about good here.

We are gonna do tomato paste.

What's fascinating to me about tomato paste is that,

despite the fact that it's been concentrated,

it still has, very much, like a raw tomato flavor.

So, cooking out your tomato paste,

watching it go more from like brick red

to this sort of darker, more kind of like blood red,

is sort of essential

for unlocking its full flavor potential.

All right, so the tomato paste has deepened.

And this is the stage

at which I'm gonna add the mushrooms.

So I'm not trying to brown them at this point,

I'm just trying to cook out some of their excess moisture

and concentrate their flavor a little bit.

Add another little bit of salt here.

These have already started to release

a good bit of their liquid.

Remember how we put that in,

and it was sort of like looking a little bit dry?

And you weren't gonna say anything

because you're really polite,

and I appreciate that about you.

But we were all thinking it.

Well, now, the water is starting to come outta the mushroom.

Suddenly, it's looking a little bit saucy.

We're starting to get a little bit of sticking

on the bottom of the pot.

I'd say, we can go in with some water.

I'm also gonna do a heavy cream.

Heavy cream, because it's already a very concentrated,

more fat-forward product.

It's pretty much like ready-to-go.

Flavor's great, this needs a little bit of salt.

I'm gonna hit it with some pepper as well.

I think we're ready to drop our pasta.

Million-Dollar Idea, okay.

Big pasta, but that's ridged on the inside

as well as the outside.

What do you think?

Who's coming with me?

So I'm gonna salt the water.

The key with this pasta and so many pastas

is to allow the pasta to finish cooking in the sauce.

A minute or two short of like full al dente, that's great.

I'm just gonna pull this a little closer

and just ladle right into here.

And I can turn the heat up on the sauce.

So I'm gonna do

a little bit more pasta-cooking liquid in here.

It's gonna help bring everything together.

Right now, it's looking a little bit watery

and like, Oh no, Chris [beep] up, but it's cool.

We're gonna get to a great place here.

Couple tablespoons of butter.

I'm gonna throw some parmesan at this stage.

It's also gonna help unite the pasta with the sauce.

Definitely needs more salt.

Yeah, that's great.

All right, we're good here.

I love how the sauce is clinging to the pasta,

but a little bit of texture from the mushroom.

It's nicely coated,

but it's just got enough of like a looseness about it.

I love how it stands off the plate.

There's something just so bold and compelling about that.

Super happy with how this came out.

I err on the side

of leaving it a little bit on the saucy side,

'cause I do find that it kind of tightens up on the plate,

I think we just gotta get into it and taste here.

Hannah, you wanna come over?

Yeah.

Is it like another cake

over there? Oh, yeah.

What is even happening today?

It's like cake overload. I know.

[Chris] Pasta with creamy mushroom ragù.

Awesome, I'm so excited to try it.

These are almost too big to take in one bite,

but I think I gotta go for it.

It's not gonna be elegant, but we're gonna do it.

Super buttery in both flavor and texture,

still has a nice chew,

the mushrooms didn't completely disintegrate into the sauce.

Do you feel like it's like,

Oh yeah, that's a mushroom, right away?

In texture alone.

In texture alone. Yes.

You could pretty much get this on the table

in under 30 minutes. Oh, wow.

I would make this any night of the week.

Yeah, totally.

Well, there's probably more cake somewhere to be eaten,

so I'll leave everybody else to it.

Okay.

Thanks, Hannah.

Bye. All right, bye.

A dish that does not sacrifice any flavor,

but is able to be created so quickly,

and also just happens to be pretty good all around.

That's a win for me any day.

Million-Dollar Idea,

pockery and like other big pasta

that have ridges on the inside as well,

Yes.

Can you tell I'm eating?

Yes. [both laughing]

I was like, How much cake is behind that mask right now?