It’s Fall in Italy and the early rains combined with the warm October temperatures have created the perfect conditions for mushrooms! Italians love to forage for mushrooms, it’s practically a national pastime.
They don’t seem inclined to go walking in the hills for exercise but they certainly value it for foraging for mushrooms. I tend to agree with them, why walk for a heart rate when you can walk with a purpose, especially a purpose that includes eating!
Mushrooms are deeply earthy, meaty and hearty, perfect in risotto, pasta, served on Bruscchetta or spooned over polenta. I enjoy walking through a forest with the damp earth beneath my feet and the oak trees over head. The light filters in through the leaves casting a dappled light show on the forest floor.
We see our fellow mushroom enthusiasts carrying a basket and strolling through the forest poking the dirt around the trees with a stick. Or we see them heading out of the forest with a bag full of the musty treasure, a smile on their face as they head home with visions of risotto dancing in their minds.
Our first mushroom foraging experience was enjoyed this week with local resident specialist Davide. Davide was raised in the Lazio region of Italy in nearby San Felice. He grew up diving for octopus and foraging for mushrooms. His father is a forest employee that raised Davide foraging for mushrooms when he wasn’t busy diving for octopus. The only thing that can divert his attention from the sea is the thought of finding Porcini mushrooms. Or, on a really good day, like today, he could do both.
We met up with Davide while he was coming up from the sea, still dripping wet and carrying a surfboard. He said “What would you like to do?” Jeff said “I want to go octopus diving”. Davide said “No, the sea is too rough, would you like to go foraging for Porcini?” Why yes, we would! So Davide tied up his surfboard on the roof of his car and we headed to the forest.
Davide explained to us that it takes a few good days of rain followed by warm October sun that creates the perfect environment for mushrooms. He says we need to look under the oak trees but we must avoid areas that have pine trees because the pine needles create an environment that is too acidic.
So we poked around the forest floor pointing out every mushroom that was wrong, like the novices that we are. Our local resident guide just shook his head and said “no, that is not a good mushroom to eat”.
We were looking for the highly valued Porcini mushroom. It is creamy white, orange or even dark brown. The stem and cap are thick, not thin. There are other mushrooms in these forests that are good for eating, such as the Ovoli, a mushroom that looks like an egg when it is first growing.
Davide says he still remembers when he found his first Porcini mushroom, he was five years old and he drew a picture of the momentous occasion. The picture still hangs on the wall of his fathers home, how proud a father must be who works for a forest to have a son that values nature as much as he does. Davide sincerely tells me, “I hope you have the joy of finding a Porcini…”
But alas, we did not experience the joy of finding our own Porcini that day. But later Davide invited us to lunch at his house. He had gone out that morning for a haircut and stopped off at a wooded area and found a whole cluster of Porcini!
We entered his home for lunch to find him at the kitchen sink, he was dusting the dirt off of the mushrooms and carefully trimming them from blemishes. I grabbed a fresh tea towel and joined him in the tedious work of wiping the mushrooms clean. He would scrape the Porcini with a knife to remove the dirt and then inhale the rich earthy aroma deeply. A little smile appears on his face and he says “I love you, Porcini…”
Ah Italians, you have to love them for their love of good natural food. Soon he was making a raw salad of Ovoli mushrooms, celery, lemon, Parmesan and olive oil. This was our antipasta course. It was so light and tasty, the Ovoli mushroom is not a very intense flavor, you hardly know you are eating mushrooms, in fact the celery, lemon and texture of the mushroom makes me think I am eating a seafood salad.
This was followed by the “Primi” course of Fettuccine with a mixture of Ovoli mushrooms and the prized Porcini mushroom. These are simply cooked in olive oil, a whole garlic clove and a little dried red pepper flake. The true method of Italian cooking is a few quality ingredients cooked to perfection.
In this case it means cooking the Fettuccine “al dente” an then finishing the cooking process of the pasta in the mushroom sauce. This makes the pasta absorb the taste of the mushrooms. He tops it with a sprinkling of Parmesan. We all eat a healthy portion savoring the valuable and rich taste of mushrooms foraged this very morning.
Now that we have been educated in the ways of foraging we will add this element to our mountain walks, carrying our basket and poking under the oak trees with our sticks. Walking in the forest always delights our senses, but especially in the fall when the pink wild cyclamen poke up through the brown oak leaves on the forest floor.
The wild mentuccia is scenting the air with its aroma, reminding me that artichoke season is soon here. I can’t wait to make up a batch of Roman artichokes by stuffing them with a handful mentuccia, salt and garlic.
The wild rosemary is in bloom with its blue flowers inviting the bees to come harvest the nectar. The scent of the rosemary stirs up in me the desire to cook up some Cacciatore seasoned with the rosemary that grows wild here.
Isn’t it Cinghiale (wild boar) season now? It certainly must be because in the predusk hours of the morning I hear the gun shots echoing in the valley below. I start dreaming of the rich taste of Cinghiale Ragu…
What about these pine trees? When can we harvest the pine nuts? Yes, a walk in the forest in Italy is not about exercise, rather it’s about seasons changing and culinary delights that await us. What a way to see the world around us, not through a computer screen or grocery store shelf but by looking down at the treasures on the forest floor and up at the towering trees above. Stop, take a breath and a good look around you, who knows what you will find.
