Charred Vegetable Ragù

This sauce is slightly magical. The texture cloaks your pasta noodles much like a traditional meat sauce does, and the flavors are deep and rich, but the sauce is vegetarian…vegan, actually! The key to success is cooking the vegetables hot and fast, so they char but don’t fully cook and soften, which they will do once you’re simmering the whole sauce. The other important point is to chop the vegetables, after charring, finely enough that they resemble the ground meat in a meat sauce yet not so finely that they become a puree. I use a food processor, but you might have more control with a big ol’ chef’s knife and a cutting board.

Inspired by a recipe from Food & Wine magazine, my version includes dried porcini (though it’s optional), which enhances the smoky-meaty flavors of the charred vegetables, and I crisp up a bunch of kale leaves and add them to the mix, which brings a pleasant, slightly bitter note to the otherwise sweet vegetables.

Pappardelle rigate is a great noodle for this ragù, with its wide, slightly ridged surface. I also like bucatini for slurpability and rigatoni for when you want a short noodle, perhaps in a baked dish.