The beauty of home cooking is the improvisation. Take white mushrooms on the edge of freshness + dried mushrooms well soaked + leftover broccoli + red onion and ... I get my umami on.
Round strip of pancetta, chopped
Half a red onion, sliced
Shallot and couple cloves of garlic, chopped
Handful of dried mushrooms, prepped (see below)
Handful of fresh mushrooms, sliced
Tomato, chopped
Steamed broccoli spears
Half a jar of TJ's marinara
Half a bag of gemelli
The dried-mushroom thing sounds like a pain in the ass, but the payoff is lots of delicious broth. Put some dried fungus in a bowl and then cover them with boiling water from the tea kettle to reconstitute. In about 20-30 minutes, you want to strain this using a cheesecloth or paper towel, saving all the liquid in another bowl for later. In between jobs, there's prep.
In a large sauté pan with hot olive oil, brown the pancetta a bit. Then add the onion and shallot and soften them up. Throw in the formerly dried mushrooms as well as the fresh ones, and season with some herbs and salt and pepper. Once those cook down a bit, add the tomato, and a little later toss in garlic. Then you're ready for the sauce. To really clean out the jar, use the mushroom broth; cap and shake, and pour in. Lower the heat. Once it's reduced, add the broccoli to bring the florets to temperature.
Cook your pasta till al dente; this doesn't take too long. Strain and finish cooking it in the sauté pan with the sauce. Stir well with some fresh or frozen basil, if you have it. Plate onto a warm pasta bowl; top with fresh grated Parmesan and red-pepper flakes. Pay yourself $14.95 + tax and tip.
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