Mushroom Vegetarian Pasta Sauce Ingredients:
1 Onion, chopped
1/2 cup dried porcini mushrooms soaked in 3/4 cup boiling hot water for about 30 minutes
1 cup white or dark (crimini) mushrooms, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup low or non fat half and half (If you can't get this, use non fat evaporated milk) (Heck, use the real stuff if you want it to be restaurant-rich)
2T butter (We use yogurt butter often in recipes where the moisture content is not critical)
1/4 cup tomato paste, thickened tomato sauce or ketchup (ketchup will make the sauce more sugary)
Salt and freshly ground Black Pepper (there is no substitute for freshly ground)
Marsala wine, about 2 T. It's pretty intense!

Preparation of the Vegetarian Paste Sauce:
Soak porcini mushrooms in water for about 1/2 hour until re-hydrated.

Remove from water and chop them thinly.

SAVE the water they soaked in and run it through a filter to filter out dirt or other "foreign" objects that may have been stuck on the porcinis.

Melt butter in pan and sauté onions until translucent.

Add regular and porcini mushrooms and sauté with onion.

Add porcini water and cream and simmer until sauce begins to thicken a bit.

Add salt and pepper.

About 5 minutes before it's done, add the tomato paste.

Also, now is the time to add the Marsala if you want it, but the sauce will need to simmer a bit longer to boil away the extra liquid.

This mushroom vegetarian pasta sauce is best served on penne or mostaccioli, not spaghetti.