Mushroom Suffritto atop Capellini Pasta

This past fall a friend from the Humboldt area visited with some of her family.  As a nice thank you for letting them stay, they gave us a very nice cookbook of Italian recipes from the North End in Boston (see photo).  Here is the first recipe I've tried so far, a mushroom suffritto.  Suffritto (sometimes also called a battuto) is a general term typically used to describe a base made of sauteed garlic, onion, and other veggies.  This particular recipe makes a great side dish or as I've made here a thick and chunky sauce to have on pasta. This is a relatively simple and tasty dish to make and I'm looking forward to making more recipes from this cookbook.

Servces: 4-6
Prep Time: 30 min
Cook Time: 30 min

Ingredients:

2-4 Tbsp olive oil
2 dried red chili peppers, crushed (optional)
5-6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1-2 onions, thinly sliced
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
1 green pepper, thinly sliced
1.5 lb button mushrooms, whole or large mushrooms, quartered
15-20 kalamata olives, sliced (optional)
1 can tomato paste
1 Tbsp dried Italian spices.
1 lb capellini pasta
salt and pepper to taste

Direction:

• lightly saute garlic, red chili peppers, and salt in a cast iron skillet
• add in onions and peppers, cover and cook until soft (add more oil if needed)
• add in mushrooms, olives tomato paste, and Italian seasoning.  
• gently stir everything together so that the tomato paste is evenly distributed
• cook and drain pasta (add some olive oil to prevent it sticking)
• cover suffritto and cook for 10-15 min.   
• serve atop capellini

Potential Alternatives:

• use other veggies (broccoli, spinach, eggplant)
• try with fresh basil