Edibles From the Forest: Funghi porcini beefs
The best mushroom meal in the world?
“Funghi porcini” (Italian common name for Boletus edulis) is probably my favorite mushroom. Rehydrated in broth or wine with onions and cream to combine them with pasta, or even better -as presented here- grilled fresh with nothing more than olive oil and a pinch of pepper and salt, just as if it were a piece of meat. A delicious recipe from the forest.
“Funghi porcini” as called in Italian is a species of edible (and super tasty!) fungus endemic to various regions of temperate and subtropical areas, but by far used most in Italian cuisine. I usually purchase it clean and dry, a preparation that lasts long and is excellent to combine with pasta. This kind of mushroom is extremely difficult to cultivate from scratch, as its life cycle is tightly dependent on its associations with the roots of specific plants. Hence most of what’s sold in markets is collected manually in wild or planted forests, especially certain types of pine trees. That’s why the best specimens can easily cost close over 50 euro per kilo (and I’ve seen them reach 100!). On the other hand, I know many Europeans, especially Italians, that just pick porcini themselves in the wild, preparing delicious meals at no cost.
In this story, I present a recipe for preparing a whole mushroom as if it were a piece of meat, just simply grilled. Besides some hints I give you below, a key point is to secure some big specimens, very fresh and with white, tender flesh inside:
But I won’t lie to you: I’m not comfortable with picking mushrooms myself, so these I show you here are from a store! I bought them in a small coastal town in Italy. I got two big, clean ones from the offer on the right, as suggested by the owner of the store:
First some key points
As I said above, this recipe will work best if you can secure some big specimens, fresh and with white, tender flesh. Make sure you don’t expose them to warm air and to direct sunlight. And avoid moisture. In fact, avoid contact with water by all means!
Do not wash the mushrooms. To clean them, use a brush to remove rests of soil, maybe a wet tissue in some small complicated areas, and simply remove superficial crusts of dry dirt.
Now the recipe
The recipe is quite simple and takes no more than 15 minutes. First, put some olive oil in a pan (or grill) and heat it up. In the meantime, cut the mushrooms into 1–2 cm thick slices. Embed these pieces in olive oil with parsley, and optionally just a bit of garlic (although personally, I prefer no garlic for this). Do not add any salt or pepper yet!
When the olive oil in the pan is hot, place the slices of mushroom and cook them for 3–5 minutes on each side. Cook strongly but avoid burning. After the first 2–3 minutes I cover the mushroom with a cap, but making sure that the cap doesn’t close the whole pan, because we don’t want to retain much water.
Once the two sides are cooked, remove from the heat source and now yes, you can add some more olive oil together with some salt and pepper (I recommend not much of any). And ready to enjoy still warm!
Here’s the other mushroom, which I cooked the following day being more careful with the cooking time and keeping slices thicker:
Further reading
An ode to this mushroom, by Aspen Blue:
Facts about Funghi porcini from Wikipedia in Italian and in English.
I am a nature, science, technology, programming, and DIY enthusiast. Biotechnologist and chemist, in the wet lab and in computers. I write about everything that lies within my broad sphere of interests. Check out my lists for more stories. Become a Medium member to access all stories by me and other writers, and subscribe to get my new stories by email (original affiliate links of the platform).