October in Italy: The Month of Funghi Porcini
The Eye’s Lucca correspondent, Sibylla, has just written us a delightful note celebrating "the month of mushrooms" in Tuscany. She did it so charmingly well that we are sharing her comments and cooking ideas here, largely unedited…here’s what she has to say:
"Cara, October is mushroom month. Fresh porcini can make up all four components of a typical Italian meal: antipasto, primo, secondo e contorno. The simpler the better to have their delicate flavor pure and unspoilt.
Antipasto: very fresh mushrooms, sliced up raw–cut paper-thin, a drop of olive oil, served with Parmesan.
Primo: saute the porcini with a bit of garlic and parsley in olive oil, use with egg pasta like pappardelle or fettucini.
Secondo: grill or broil the whole mushrooms, serve with a drop of oil e basta! Or top any meat of your choice like beef or chicken
breast with sauteed porcini.
Contorno: now we call them funghi trifolati, basically they are chopped up, sauteed and enjoyed. There are a number of restaurants serving full porcini mushrooms menus these days.
If you can only find the dried ones, soak them for 20 minutes in warm water, rinse well, add a little white wine to the fresh mushroom recipes and dress your pasta or meat.
Did you know that there is a license required here to gather porcini in any number? There is even a law prohibiting the gathering of porcini in plastic bags, one must use a basket. Why? Very simple: the spores can leave freely from a basket but not from a plastic bag, thus assuring the next year’s porcini.
We ate porcini three times last week."
Brava! Buon Appetito, Sibylla!