Pasta with tomato and dried mushrooms is an easy and quick first course to prepare, ideal when you have an empty fridge but don’t want to give up a tasty first course. This is an excellent recipe even when you have little desire to cook but maybe there are unexpected guests: these are all circumstances in which it will certainly come in handy!
The expression “alla boscaiola” is used to indicate different types of dishes served with a mushroom-based sauce or ragù, common in Italian cuisine. There are several local variations, which in addition to mushrooms include the addition of different ingredients such as pork, in different combinations, peas, black olives, pachino tomatoes or, alternatively, cooking cream.
Widespread throughout Italy, according to some the condiment would originate in the mountains between Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna, but there is no certain information about it. The use of mushrooms in the kitchen, in fact, is an ancient practice, widespread throughout the peninsula and in the most ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean Sea.
Egyptian hieroglyphs from 4,600 years ago attest that the Pharaohs thought that mushrooms were “herbs of immortality” with a magnetic feeling to seduce your loved. The ancient Egyptians believed that wild mushrooms were the “sons of the Gods”, sent to earth through lightning and for this reason only the Pharaohs were allowed to eat them. Later then, over the centuries, they entered popular folklore with poetic versions and fantastic legends. According to one of these, the mushrooms were born from the bread crumbs fallen in a wood from two loaves that Jesus and St. Peter were eating while walking in a wood. The two loaves were one white and one black and the crumbs gave life to edible and poisonous mushrooms.
