Siberian Tomato Sauce

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The recipe for this sauce was passed in my family for at least three generations. It is different from typical Italian pasta sauce, and is best with kopytka - a Poilish version of gniocchi.

Story

I remember vaguely my mother telling me that the recipe for this sauce was brought back by my grandfather when he came back from Siberia, where he was exiled by the Tsarist Rusia as punishment for participating in Polish resistance. During the time there he was forced to work building a railroad, possibly a part of Trans-Siberian Railway. I don’t know how much of this is true, but the sauce always was a favourite of mine, particularly when used with kopytka, potato based noodles similar to Italian gnocchi.

Recipe

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Ingredients

500 gsmoked bacon
2medium onions, chopped
1 cantomato sauce
1 cantomato paste
saltto taste
3-4slices of dried rye bread, broken into 1 inch pieces (optional – some people dislike it)
2-3dried mushrooms (true boletes (porcini) or bay boletes are best, but you can mix them with other dried mushrooms.

Directions

  1. Soak dried mushrooms in a pot in small amount of cold water for at least a couple of hours, or better overnight.
  2. Mix the content of the pot vigorously to dislodge any grit and sand they usually contain.
  3. Fish out the hydrated mushrooms with a slotted spoon or spider strainer, then cut them into small pieces (about 1 inch).
  4. Cut bacon into slices then across into stripes about 12 mm (1/2 inch) wide
  5. In a wide pot or deep frying pan fry the bacon pieces on medium high heat.
  6. Once the bacon starts to brown add chopped onions and continue frying until onion stats to brown.
  7. Add tomato sauce and tomato paste, mix well and lower the heat to medium low.
  8. When the mixture starts boiling, add re-hydrated dried mushrooms along with the filtered liquid, and broken pieces of dried rye bread.
  9. Continue simmering the sauce until bread pieces and mushroom are soft. You may need to add some water if the sauce starts to stick to the bottom and burn. If this happens, take the pot off the heat and let it rest for a few minutes, than scrape the bottom with a wooden spoon or spatula – it should soften enough to come off easy. Continue simmering until ready.
    Note: the special flavour of this sauce develops when the sauce burns just a little on the bottom.

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