Pasta with Chanterelle Mushrooms

 

This has been a stellar season for mushroom hunting, collecting kilos of funghi from the woods surrounding our farmhouse Jason has made countless dishes incorporating the wild mushrooms. And to top it all off Gaggi stopped by the other day with a basket full of chanterelle or gallinaccio mushrooms. As soon as Jason laid eyes on these delicate golden mushrooms he knew he'd make fresh pasta and a simple sauce to let the chanterelle shine!

 

 

 Pasta with Chanterelle Mushrooms
Tagliatelle con Funghi

serves 4
2 cloves of garlic
extra virgin olive oil
meat of 1 sausage
1/2 lb of chanterelle or other wild mushrooms like porcini
2 tablespoons heavy cream
small handful of parsley, chopped
salt
pepper
tablespoon of white wine
fresh pasta

In a frying pan heat 3-4 glugs of olive oil & add brown whole cloves of garlic. Once brown, remove from pan & discard.

In the same pan, sauté sausage meat, breaking up into tiny pieces with a wooden spoon.

When sausage meat is broken into crumbly bits & it is thoroughly cooked (without pink meat) add the mushrooms & continue to sauté for a few minutes.

Add in white wine & lower heat, reduce until most of the liquid has evaporated.

Pour in cream, cook for 30 seconds. Adjust seasoning with salt & pepper. If it looks a little dry add a spoonful or two of the pasta water.

Finish with chopped parsley. Toss with fresh cooked pasta.

Outright Divine: Porcini Risotto with Truffle Oil

This year the mushroom hunting has been prolific! Every couple days we head into the woods with the Good Doctor, Gaggi and bring home baskets full in no time! The weather conditions are just right...(A full blog post with photos to come!) So what better way to enjoy our bounty than with a rich decadent porcini risotto topped with truffle oil made by our neighbor Alessandro Rossi!

The kitchen will smell outright divine!

Porcini Risotto

Risotto di Porcini

Serves 6

4 Tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove
8 oz of fresh Porcini diced ( or other type of wild mushroom)
5 cups or so fresh vegetable stock/ chicken stock
3/4 cup dry white wine
scant 2 cups risotto rice - Arborio or Carnaroli are best
salt & pepper
Parmesan cheese
chopped Parsley to taste
Truffle Oil (use it if you got it!)

If fresh porcini are not available in your area, try using crimini or chanterelle mushroom in combination with dried porcini that have been soaked in hot water to rehydrate. Do not discard this liquid!  It will have a strong porcini taste and should be added to the stock for the rice.

Heat the oil in a pan, add the onion & garlic and sweat for 10 minutes or so over med-low heat with out browning.  Add your mushroom  and sweat them slowly until tender with a little stock to ensure that nothing burns. Season with salt and pepper.

Now raise the heat, add the rice and saute for a minute or two. Add in the wine and let it cook out.

Meanwhile, bring the stock to a boil in another pot.  Add a ladle-full of the hot stock and cook, stirring constantly, until it has been absorbed into the rice.

Continue adding the stock, a ladle-full at a time, constantly stirring until each addition has been absorbed. This will take 18-20 minutes.

When the rice is al'dente, turn off the heat, add in a handful or two of grated parmesan, a bit of chopped parsley and give the rice one more stir, check seasoning. (It's important to be still a little al'dente because it will continue cooking in the liquids even as you serve.) Rice should be thick & creamy but not runny. Cover the pot and allow the rice to sit for a couple of minutes.

To serve, spoon the rice into each bowl and drizzle with extra special truffle oil or extra virgin olive oil and serve immediately.

Before and After

Decadent Lasagna Bianco with Porcini & Sausage

During the snow storm of the century in Central Italy, I can't think of a better way to warm up than devouring a plate of decadent pasta & a good bottle of red after a day of shoveling the drive. Perfect for a cold winter's night, lasagna bianco,  'white lasagna' is made with porcini mushrooms, sausages & rich creamy bechamel, a local classic in northern Le Marche. A refined take on the usual red sauce classic, that will have your mouthwatering for more after the first bite. 

Extra Delicious Tip: Make sure to have your pasta sheets large enough to hang over the edges creating golden crispy edges!

Lasagna Bianco
White Lasagna

serves 6
1 recipe of egg pasta or 4 sheets of fresh pasta
1 recipe of béchamel sauce
8 oz. sausage meat (250 gr)
2 cloves garlic, whole, peeled
2 big handfuls (about 2 cups) chopped mushrooms (we use porcini, chanertelle and other local wild mushrooms)
small handful of chopped parsley
3 Tablespoons of olive oil
salt & pepper to taste

In a skillet on low heat slowly brown whole peeled cloves of garlic for 2-3 minutes turning frequently. Then raise the heat to medium, add the sausage meat to the pan and all to cook slowly until there is no pink in the meat about 8-10 minutes.  With the back of a fork smash the meat into little pieces.  Then add in your mushrooms and season with salt & pepper.

Once the mushrooms cook out their liquid, lower the temperature and cook for 10-15 minutes until nice & soft. Add a couple of tablespoons of water to the pan if all the liquid cooks out so the pan doesn’t go dry.

Shut off the heat and taste, checking your salt & pepper, stir in parsley.

Assembly of the lasagna
Have ready parmesan, sausage & mushroom mixture, béchamel, pasta sheets & baking dish.

Start by placing a small amount of bechamel in the bottom of your baking dish - spreading it out.

One layer of pasta into boiling water until it is half-cooked. (Cooking time will vary based on type of pasta - fresh vs. dried)

Put the pasta down in the baking pan. Add a quarter of the mushroom sausage mixture, dotting the top with bechamel and a healthy sprinkle of cheese. Repeat this process until you have 4 layers.

Bake at 400 degree oven until the edges are golden brown & bubbly.
Freezes well. If you take out of the freezer, allow to defrost & come up to room temperature, then hit the corners of the lasagna with a few drops of milk to add moisture.

Tagliatelle Pasta with Porcini Mushrooms

Fresh porcini mushrooms are meaty & delicious but light enough for a summer pasta!Porcini mushrooms found in the woods of Le Marche on one of our hunts!

Here is a simple pasta sauce recipe using fresh porcini or other wild mushrooms. This dish is cucina povera at its best yet tastes elegant & refined at the same time. Seasonally this is a late spring/early summer dish. Procini in particular freeze surprisingly well, extending their season long after June, which is how we are still enjoying them today as this year's mushroom 'season' was highly anticipated but lack-luster at best.

We served this as one of the 2 pasta courses for the wedding we did in June. Not a single bite was left on anyone's plates - enough said! You can also use this 'sauce' as a topping for crostini as a tasty antipasta!

Pasta with Porcini Mushrooms
Tagliatelle con Funghi Porcini

serves 4
2 cloves of garlic
extra virgin olive oil
meat of 1 sausage
1 lb of wild mushrooms - porcini are our favorites
2 tablespoons heavy cream
small handful of parsley, chopped
salt
pepper
tablespoon of white wine
fresh pasta

In a frying pan heat 3-4 glugs of olive oil & add brown whole cloves of garlic. Once brown, remove from pan & discard.

In the same pan, sauté sausage meat, breaking up into tiny pieces with a wooden spoon.

When sausage meat is broken into crumbly bits & it is thoroughly cooked (without pink meat) add the mushrooms & continue to sauté for a few minutes.

Add in white wine & lower heat, reduce until most of the liquid has evaporated.

Pour in cream, cook for 30 seconds. Adjust seasoning with salt & pepper. If it looks a little dry add a spoonful or two of the pasta water.

Finish with chopped parsley.

Toss with fresh cooked pasta.