Rigatoni with Vegetable Bolognese

A few weekends ago, I decided to make a new pasta dish for my husband and I to try.  My husband is a vegetarian so its tough to find new recipes that we both like and don't involve pasta.  I am a huge Giada De Laurentiis fan and many of her vegetarian meals are pasta dishes.  I decided to try the Rigatoni with Vegetable Bolognese recipe from her cookbook, Giada's Kitchen. The recipe was very earthy because of all of the mushrooms used. If you don't like mushrooms, do not make this meal!  I found the recipe to be a bit bland but I think that is because of my use of spices, meaning I didn't use enough.  We had lots of leftovers so we ate them for lunch the next day and the meal tasted better with some added black pepper.  I think I would make this meal again and instead of using dry spices of thyme and oregano maybe I would use fresh herbs (like the recipe calls for). I would also maybe make this again without the carrots or use less of them as I didn't like the sweet taste of them.  This dish is great accompanied with a glass (or two) of red wine.

Below are the ingredients and instructions on how to make this dish (you can also find the ingredients & recipe on FoodNetwork.com).  

You will need:

• 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 (I used cremini and shiitake), stemmed and chopped
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
• 1 pound rigatoni pasta
• grated Parmesan cheese

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.