Читать книгу The Kitchen Diaries II - Nigel Slater - Страница 53

Use fancy mushrooms if you wish, but I rather like this made with an everyday mixture of flat ‘field’ mushrooms and the small chestnut variety. Add the mushrooms according to their size and thickness, leaving anything particularly small and delicate till last. By field mushrooms I mean the wide, flat variety that are usually served on toast.

dried mushrooms: a tablespoon (8g)

pearled spelt: 250g

a medium onion

olive oil: 4 tablespoons

garlic: 2 cloves, crushed

assorted fresh mushrooms: 850g

tomato purée: a tablespoon

plain flour: a tablespoon

dried chilli flakes: ½ teaspoon

Put the dried mushrooms in a heatproof bowl, cover with 500ml hot water from the kettle and set aside.

Boil the spelt in lightly salted water for fifteen minutes, then drain and set aside.

Peel and roughly chop the onion. Warm the olive oil in a large pan. Add the onion and leave to soften, with the occasional stir to stop it burning, over a moderate heat. When it is pale gold – a matter of ten to fifteen minutes – add the crushed garlic and continue cooking for two or three minutes.

Finely slice the fresh mushrooms. Stir them into the onion and continue cooking for about five minutes, till they are starting to colour.

Stir in the tomato purée. Cook for two or three minutes, then stir in the flour. Pour in the dried mushrooms and their soaking water and bring to the boil. As soon as the liquid is boiling, lower the heat, season with salt and black pepper and stir in the dried chilli flakes. Leave to simmer for ten minutes, then add the cooked spelt. Cook for a further ten to fifteen minutes, until the mushrooms are soft and silky and the sauce is rich and lightly thickened. Serve in shallow bowls.

Enough for 4