Mushroom Spaghetti Bolognese {Vegan}
As a vegetarian who also likes to explore and create in the kitchen, I always find it intriguing to come up with vegetarian versions of classic dishes where meat is a signature element of the dish. Spaghetti bolognese is one such popular dish found in restaurants all over the world where it is usually served as a plate of spaghetti topped with a more-or-less thick tomato and meat sauce.
Despite its popularity worldwide, you may be hard pressed to find spaghetti bolognese in Italy however. What passes for a bolognese sauce here in North America should probably be more properly described as a ragu sauce from southern Italy where tomatoes grow in abundance. So while a bolognese sauce and a southern Italian ragu sauce both consist of minced meat (usually beef, but occasionally pork, chicken or even fish) cooked with onions and carrots and frequently celery, a bolognese sauce depends much less or not at all on the addition of tomatoes and is also made with white wine. Moreover, a bolognese sauce is never served with spaghetti and is mixed in with the pasta — usually tagliatelle but almost always a wider shaped pasta — rather than served over top.
These distinctions aside, my main concern was to find a vegetarian alternative that did not contain meat of any kind but stayed true to the consistency and flavors of a spaghetti bolognese. Minced mushrooms are such an obvious choice to replace the meat in this sauce to provide the earthy and meaty flavor and texture of minced meat. Red wine instead of white wine also gives the sauce a depth of flavor. True to some more modern versions of bolognese sauce, I included a minimal amount of tomato and some garlic and herbs to round out the taste. Mixed into the pasta rather than served over top, the sauce was very thick, rich and smoky, and turned out to make it perhaps the most enjoyable spaghetti meal that I can remember.
I did use spaghetti made out of kamut grains instead of durum wheat. Kamut spaghetti can usually be found in most natural food stores and often in many supermarkets. If you can find it, kamut spaghetti has a nutty flavor on its own that perfectly complemented the sauce — in fact, it's delicious just on its own — but this vegan spaghetti bolognese will delight your diners using regular spaghetti too. I will leave the question of whether this vegan sauce is a bolognese or ragu — or something else altogether — up to culinary connoisseurs.
Mushroom Spaghetti Bolognese {Vegan} |
Recipe by Lisa Turner Cuisine: Italian Published on April 30, 2019 Rich, smoky and delicious vegan version of the classic Italian spaghetti bolognese Print this recipe Ingredients:
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Other pasta dishes to enjoy from Lisa's Vegetarian Kitchen:
Lemony Pasta with Broccoli and Chickpeas
Pasta Shells with Roasted Vegetables and Black Olives
Penne with a Spicy Eggplant and Mushroom Tomato Sauce
Spinach Pesto Pasta
Zesty Green Pea and Jalapeño Pesto Pasta
On the top of the reading stack: Teff Love: Adventures in Vegan Ethiopian Cooking
Audio Accompaniment: Shallow by Porya Hatami
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