My dear friend and fellow foodie/home cook and vegetarian extraordinaire Paul came over to hang out with us for a while tonight and in honor, I made a simple, tasty dinner of a mushroom and leek ragout. Mostly because I had most of the stuff for pasta and needed to fill my quota of 2 or 3 pasta dishes a week.
Like…well, every dish I make, this is a fairly flexible recipe. And by “recipe,” I mean “guideline.” And by “guideline,” I mean, “loosely affiliated series of ingredients, directions and methods.”
Mushroom Ragout
olive oil
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large leek, chopped and washed
3 qts of various mushrooms (I used one quart cremini, one quart button and one quart shiitake)
1/2 tbsp dried oregano
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp dried fennel
28-30oz crushed tomatoes or canned tomato sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar
1oz creamy goat cheese
1 box rigatoni, cooked according to package directions
Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a good sized skillet over medium high heat. When the oil is hot, add in the garlic, sautéing for a couple minutes, then add in the leek and oregano and sauté for a few minutes until soft. Add in mushrooms and a bit of water, stirring thoroughly and letting sit until the mushrooms cook down a bit. Add in cayenne, cumin and fennel, stir, and let mushrooms cook down for 4-5 more minutes.
Add in tomato sauce and brown sugar. Cook about 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. At the end of the cooking time, fold in the goat cheese and incorporate well. Add in rigatoni, mix and serve with a good breadstick or crusty loaf.
It’s a creamy, spicy and filling dish…you won’t even miss the meat, really. Seriously. Don’t look at me like that. Try it.
Why the brown sugar? Southerners do that a lot I’ve noticed, put sugar in their tomato sauce, but I just can’t get behind it. Perhaps you can explain the rational to me and how you make it not taste gross. Every time I’ve had sauce with sugar in it it has made me gag, but I trust you and your tastes so this perplexes me.
I’ve found that tomatoes are generally pretty acidic and the sugar mollifies that. Now, I’ve tried doing it once with white sugar and it was terrible. I could taste the sugar and it kind of grossed me out. The brown sugar, however, doesn’t have a taste that cuts through the sauce like white sugar does–it’s more natural tasting– but still takes away the acidity. I also tend to make spicy sauces and it’s a good counter to that.
I don’t think I’ve ever tried it with brown sugar. Only with white and like you said you could taste the sugar and it’s just icky. I will have to try it with brown sugar, because you’re right about the acidity and know that’s kind of the idea behind the sugar, but I’ve never found the reduction in acid worth the bad taste of the white sugar. You continue to be my go to foodie.