Porcini, chanterelles, oyster mushrooms, Amanitas, morels and field mushrooms: this is peak harvesting season in Italy, when these products, whether wild or cultivated, are at their best.
By the end of summer and early fall, mushroom gathering has begun in earnest. For cultivated mushrooms, the beginning of autumn is a good time to explore one of the best-loved ingredients in Italian cuisine.
What should a cook know when preparing them?
In the produce aisle
Let’s start with the easy ones: Agaricus bisporus – known variously as button or white mushrooms, champignons, and in their larger variety under the name of portobello mushrooms – are the most versatile and the most commonly grown. The farming method for these mushrooms, discovered in France in the 18th century, was introduced in Italy in 1913 near Vicenza and practiced in artificial caves. Today Italy is one of Europe’s largest producers, especially around Lombardy and Veneto. These mushrooms are easy to clean before cooking and are generally pan sautéed with garlic and extra-virgin olive oil and then used in pasta dishes, risottos or with meats. They’re also delicious grilled.
Good grilling
Increasing slightly in complexity, oyster mushrooms or orecchioni (Pleurotus ostreatus, mostly available from farms) are excellent in meat, fish or poultry courses when grilled and then seasoned with extra-virgin olive oil, garlic and parsley, or cooked like cutlets. For cutlets, simply make a classic breading of flour, egg and bread crumbs, coat the mushrooms, and you’re ready to go. They should not be overcooked, as just a few minutes per side is enough. They can also be baked.
His majesty, the Porcino
The king of mushrooms is certainly the porcino (Boletus edulis). When fresh, porcini are perfect for risottos, with tagliatelle or polenta, or baked in savory pies, and they grill up nicely as a side dish or accompaniment for meat. Here again, the favorite cooking method is with garlic and extra-virgin olive oil. When dried, porcini should be soaked in hot water for 30 minutes and then cooked for about 10 minutes, but the fresh ones don’t take quite that long. The porcini mushrooms we find in stores are usually picked from the wild, as their cultivation is rather complicated.
Try to note the source, if you can: the traditional Italian areas for porcini, meaning the Apennine mountains in Liguria, Tuscany, Emilia, Umbria, the Marche and on down to Abruzzo – with the liveliest markets in Sassello (Savona), Bobbio (Piacenza) and Borgo Val di Taro (Parma) – are being crowded out by cheaper products from Eastern Europe. Romania, Bulgaria and Macedonia are major sources, but there are also imports of Chinese mushrooms, which may be an inferior grade with little quality control. Still, they are lowering prices and making mushroom foraging less profitable in Italy.
Delicacies from Trentino and beyond
Another specialty from Italian forests, chanterelles (Cantarellus cibarius), called finferli in Italian are widespread in Trentino. Sautéed chanterelles, which are tasty with pasta, start with minced onions cooked in extra-virgin olive oil and a little white wine, adding the chanterelles for about 15 minutes, deglazing with a little vegetable broth as needed and adding salt if necessary. When they are done, sprinkle them with minced parsley.
The white wine controversy
This cooking method, using garlic, extra-virgin olive oil and fresh parsley with some broth or white wine and minced carrot and celery, can be successful with almost any wild mushroom. Some cooks frown on the use of wine, however, and the inclusion of carrots and celery has some detractors as well. In Tuscany, mushrooms are often served with mint: this pairing yields excellent tagliatelle.
Other mushrooms that can be prepared this way include the shaggy mane (Coprinus comatus), the chanterelle (Cantarellus pallens), the Amanita (Amanita caesarea), the Russula and the parasol mushroom (Macrolepiota procera) with the inedible stem discarded for this last variety.
Long-cooking mushrooms
Grilling should be avoided with morels (Morchella esculenta). Some mushrooms have long cooking times: not just oyster mushrooms, but poplar fieldcaps (Cyclocybe cylindracea), the fried chicken mushroom (Lyophyllum decastes) and the Lyophyllum conglobatum can handle extra time on the stove. The honey fungus (Armillaria mellea) must be thoroughly cooked or else it is toxic.
Speaking of toxicity, maximum caution should be exercised with wild mushrooms, consuming only definitively identified species gathered by qualified and experienced people.