Stewed Fresh Porcini Mushrooms Recipe

By
Kyle Phillips
Kyle Phillips
Food, wine, and travel writer Kyle Phillips lived in Tuscany and developed his passion and expertise for food and cooking through travel.
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Updated on 05/19/22
How to Cook Fresh Porcini Mushrooms: 3 Ways

The Spruce / Sonia Bozzo

Prep: 5 mins
Cook: 35 mins
Total: 40 mins
Servings: 3 to 4 servings

Funghi porcini, with their meaty texture, pronounced flavor, and heady, earthy fragrance, are by far Italy's most valued wild mushrooms. When they are fresh, they are a great treat: You can grill them, use them to top pizzas, make sauces with them, and more. We provide you three ways to make these delicious mushrooms: grilled, fried, or stewed.

The recipe below, for stewed porcini mushrooms, is a simple way to stew them for use either as a pasta sauce, a side dish to accompany a substantial main course (such as steak or roast beef), or a topping for crostini, as an antipasto appetizer. The other methods, grilling and frying porcini mushrooms, are located in the tips section underneath this recipe.

In Tuscany, where porcini mushrooms are abundant, they are traditionally sautéed together with a form of wild mint known as nepitella, or mentuccia. Since that can be impossible to find elsewhere, you can substitute fresh thyme, or just use flat-leaf parsley, instead.

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Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup olive oil

  • 2 cloves garlic, finely minced or crushed

  • 1 tablespoon fresh thyme, parsley leaves, or nepitella

  • 1 pound porcini mushrooms, cleaned and cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices, stems, and caps

  • 1 medium plum tomato, diced

  • 1 to 2 tablespoons white wine, or broth

  • Salt, to taste

  • Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

  • Fresh parsley leaves, for garnish

Steps to Make It

  1. Gather the ingredients.

    Fresh Porcini Mushrooms ingredients

    The Spruce / Sonia Bozzo

  2. Heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat.

    Oil in a pan

    The Spruce / Sonia Bozzo

  3. Sauté the garlic and thyme or parsley (or nepitella) in the olive oil for 1 to 2 minutes, or until the garlic just turns pale golden.

    Sauté the garlic and nepitella in the pan

    The Spruce / Sonia Bozzo

  4. Add the mushrooms, increase the heat to high, and cook, stirring, until the mushrooms have given off their water.

    mushrooms cooking in a pan

    The Spruce / Sonia Bozzo

  5. Reduce the heat to low, stir in the tomato, and simmer for about 30 minutes (this gives the tomato the time it requires to cook down into the sauce). Should the mushrooms begin to dry out, sprinkle them with white wine or broth. 

    Mushrooms cooking in a pan

    The Spruce / Sonia Bozzo

  6. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

    Mushrooms cooking in a pan

    The Spruce / Sonia Bozzo

  7. Garnish with fresh parsley. Serve and enjoy.

    Porcini mushrooms in a pan

    The Spruce / Sonia Bozzo

Another Way to Stew Porcini

You can also stew porcini without the tomato, in which case, they are known as porcini trifolati. Use parsley rather than nepitella in the cooking, and cook until the mushrooms have reabsorbed their juices and are fork-tender, adding a splash of white wine, if desired. This recipe, with or without tomato, will also work with other flavorful mushrooms, so feel free to try it with whatever wild mushrooms are available in your market.

How to Make Grilled Porcini Mushrooms

If the caps are large—around 4 to 6 inches in diameter—you can make grilled porcini mushrooms.


  • Remove the stems, which are perfect for making sauce. Rub the caps with a slice of lemon, cut slits into them with the tip of a sharp paring knife, and insert slivers of garlic and nepitella leaves to taste. Give them an initial blast of high heat and then raise the grill from the coals and turn them several times. When they are done, transfer them to a serving dish, add a few drops of melted butter or olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste, and serve.


They are wonderful with grilled steak and even better if served directly on top of the steaks.

How to Fry Porcini Mushrooms

You can also fry porcini: 


  • Cut them lengthwise into 1/4-inch-wide slices, dredge the slices in flour (if the flour doesn't stick, dip them first in cool water, pat them dry, and then dredge them in flour), then dip the floured slices one at a time in chilled water to barely dampen the flour (this serves to make them crunchier—do not soak them), and fry them in hot oil until golden brown. Drain on absorbent paper, sprinkle with salt, and serve immediately.


This will also work well with other kinds of flavorful, meaty mushrooms.


Nutrition Facts (per serving)
169 Calories
14g Fat
10g Carbs
3g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 3 to 4
Amount per serving
Calories 169
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 14g 18%
Saturated Fat 2g 10%
Cholesterol 0mg 0%
Sodium 150mg 7%
Total Carbohydrate 10g 4%
Dietary Fiber 4g 13%
Total Sugars 3g
Protein 3g
Vitamin C 7mg 36%
Calcium 11mg 1%
Iron 1mg 4%
Potassium 329mg 7%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

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