Ingredients
- 1-ounce dried porcini mushrooms
- 1 1/2 cups hot water
- 3 carrots, peeled and chopped
- 1 onion, peeled and chopped
- 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme leaves
- 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano leaves
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 5 ounces assorted mushrooms (like shiitake, cremini, and brown), stemmed and chopped
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1/2 cup red wine
- 1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
- 1 pound rigatoni pasta
- 1/4 cup Parmesan
Directions
Place the dried mushrooms in a small bowl and cover with 1 1/2 cups very hot water. Set aside and let the mushrooms soften.
Place the carrots, onion, bell pepper, and garlic in a food processor. Pulse the vegetables until finely chopped but still chunky. Place the olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chopped vegetables, thyme, oregano, salt, and pepper and cook until tender, about 6 minutes. Strain the porcini mushrooms, reserving the porcini mushroom liquid. Add the porcini mushrooms, fresh mushrooms, and tomato paste and continue cooking, stirring to dissolve the tomato paste, until the mushrooms are softened, about 5 minutes. Add the porcini mushroom liquid and red wine. Bring the liquid to a boil, reduce the heat to low, and let the mixture simmer until the liquid is reduced by half, about 10 minutes. Add mascarpone cheese and stir just until the cheese is incorporated.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain pasta, reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid and add to the vegetable mixture. Add some of the reserved pasta cooking liquid, if necessary, to moisten the sauce. Toss with Parmesan and serve.
Photo: Rigatoni with Vegetable Bolognese Recipe

















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By mkat29
on April 27, 2013
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I had high expectations for this dish and it didn't let me down. Clever idea, the ground carrot and other veggies really simulate meat (not that I care being that I'm a vegetarian. A couple changes, I added about 2 more table spoons of tomato paste, and also some tomato sauce. Also added eggplant. Thanks Giada.
By klcev_6732552
Walnut, CA
on April 11, 2013
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All I can say is my husband raved about this dish for days afterwords. That is saying a lot!
By jebby28
upstate ny
on November 04, 2012
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This was awesome....One disclosure - my store was out of dried porcini - I assumed they and the liquid were used to give this a more "earthy" taste so I used 1 1/2 cups of beef stock and increased the amount of fresh mushrooms I put in...I know this takes away from the "vegetarian" aspect of this recipe, so next time I will make it with the dried porcini and see if that makes a difference...the way I prepared it I could hardly tell the difference between a regular bolognese sauce....
**UPDATE** The following day had the leftovers and after the flavors had all melded it tasted overly salty to me...Thinking back I should have thought to cut back on the 2 tsp of salt the original recipe called for since I used the beef stock, so if you decide to go that route, I'm thinking 1 tsp of salt would be enough...
Read all 209 reviews