Parts of Italy have had a lot of rain of late, and the markets are full of Porcini. If you are lucky enough to have one (or better yet a few) like this, one of the nicest options is to fire up the grill, cook steaks, grill the porcini caps too, and serve the steaks topped with porcini caps. A Brunello or a Barolo, and life will be very nice.
This does leave the stems, however. They're ideal for boscaiola sauce for pasta. Serve the pasta as a first course, followed by the steaks, for an extraordinarily mushroomy meal.
A Few More Ideas For Porcini
Porcini Not What You Had In Mind?
Try Leonardo Romanelli's wonderfully tomatoey Braciole Fritte alla Fiorentina!
Comments
Last night we sauteed a huge bowl of the Lunigiana’s suddenly abundant porcini and ate them all. Mmmm.
james
The Lunigiana’s porcini are gooood. Someone gave Elisabetta a bag of porcini yesterday and I’ll be doing something with them today.
Kyle
I’m on the island of Ischia, off the coast of Naples in Italy, at the moment. And all my friends and family here have been scouring the woods for mushrooms, especially the porcini. My cousin even eats them raw. Alas, my father is jealous because when he returned to Ischia, his childhood home, last year for my wedding, there was no rain and therefore no mushrooms.
Boscaiola sauce…ahhh.
Wish I was over there! I miss seeing them in the Italian markets in the fall…. always exciting when they come in…. I heard that one should NOT wash them. Do you agree?
You mentioned Nepetella as a seasoning for porcini. Nepetella is a charming Mediterranean herb that can be grown here in the states in a hot dry well-drained site. In summer it is covered with tiny white flowers, attractive to bees. It has tiny leaves with a minty taste. I wouldn’t have thought of it as a seasoning for mushrooms, but why not?
As a general rule, porcini shouldn’t be washed. Simply trim away the root area at th bottom of the stem and brush off any dirt you may see on the stem or cap with a cloth or brush.
Kyle