It isn’t often that you can make a condiment with a single dried ingredient, but since dried mushrooms have become widely available, that occurrence has become more common. If you simmer dried mushrooms until tender, then toss them in a blender with their cooking liquid, you get a thick puree, potent and delicious, something you can use wherever you’d use salsa or even ketchup. You can use any dried mushrooms for this condiment, from the extremely inexpensive shiitakes (also called “black mushrooms”) sold at Asian markets to the prince of dried mushrooms, the porcini. Smoky porcini (usually imported from Chile or Poland) are really good here.

　　

Ingredients

makes 4 servings

　　1 ounce dried porcini (about 1/2 cup loosely packed)

　　Salt and freshly ground black pepper

　　

Step 1

Combine the mushrooms with 2 1/2 cups of water in a 4- or 6-cup saucepan and turn the heat to medium-high. Bring to a boil, then adjust the heat so the mixture simmers gently. Cook until the mushrooms are tender, about 15 minutes.

　　

Step 2

Remove the mushrooms with a slotted spoon and put in a blender. Strain the liquid through a paper towel put in a sieve or through a couple of layers of cheesecloth; there will be about 1 cup. Add most of the liquid to the mushrooms and puree, adding the remaining liquid if necessary to allow the machine to do its work.

　　

Step 3

Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve or cover and refrigerate for up to a couple of days.

　　

Variations

Step 4

While the basic sauce mushroom, salt, pepper, and water is surprisingly complex, you can give it additional depth by adding one—or all—of the following to the blender during step 2:

　　

Step 5

A peeled shallot or small garlic clove

　　

Step 6

1 teaspoon or more fresh thyme leaves (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)

　　

Step 7

1 tablespoon or more port, tomato paste, or soy sauce In each case, be sure to taste the puree before you remove it from the blender; the mushroom flavor is so strong that it may take a relatively large quantity of a complementary ingredient to make an impression.

　　From Mark Bittman's Quick and Easy Recipes From the New York Times by Mark Bittman Copyright (c) 2007 by Mark Bittman Published by Broadway Books.Mark Bittman is the author of the blockbuster Best Recipes in the World (Broadway, 2005) and the classic bestseller How to Cook Everything, which has sold more than one million copies. He is also the coauthor, with Jean-Georges Vongerichten, of Simple to Spectacular and Jean-Georges: Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef. Mr. Bittman is a prolific writer, makes frequent appearances on radio and television, and is the host of The Best Recipes in the World, a 13-part series on public television. He lives in New York and Connecticut.