Carpaccio with Beefsteak Mushrooms

Classic beef carpaccio with a salad of crisp, juicy beefsteak mushrooms is a great way to enjoy a unique edible mushroom most people will never have in their life.

Carpaccio, the classic Italian appetizer of tenderized, thinly sliced raw beef served with olive oil, arugula and good parmesan, was one of the first recipes I was taught to prep when I worked for Chef Angelo Volpicelli, who owned his own restaurant in Rome.

One of these days I'll share his method for pure beef carpaccio but today, I have a riff on it made with one of the most elusive wild mushrooms I harvest: the beefsteak, also known as the (ox tongue / Fistulina hepatica) the wood rotting cousin to the more well known hen and chicken of the woods.

Quick aside: Fistulina hepatica is definitely not to be confused with the other mushrooms that share the common name beefsteak, (genuses Gyromitra, and to a lesser extent the Discina), which must never, ever, be consumed raw. 

Beefsteaks are great raw

There aren't a lot of wild mushroom recipes on this site that don't require cooking. Beefsteak mushroom recipes stand apart from all other polypores, (and the overwhelming majority of other wild mushrooms) in that they are at their finest raw, and, counter-intuitively taste much better raw than they do cooked.

Harvested in their prime stage, with the pores still tight and firm and cut into slices, they have a great crisp texture and subtle tartness, the gentle sour flavor which is often over-represented in descriptions as similar to sorrel or oxalis. In my opinion the tart flavor is-exaggerated. To me their tang is more of a "suggestion of tartness", if that makes any sense. 

Either way, beefsteak mushrooms, as the name implies, are sometimes compared to meat. While their form may casually resemble a slice of  muscle in the scarlet color and the fascinating fact that they give off a light to medium-hued red juice when cut or squished, to me, they're just another delicious wild mushroom. Beefsteaks, aren't steaks.

I like to think of these mushrooms as something to use more of as a garnish than a center of the plate protein substitute (something they seem to now get regularly compared to in the meat-substitute world I love to loathe).

Then there's also the fact that I don't care for them cooked, and would never grill a chunk of them. To me, Beefsteak mushrooms were born to eat, and enjoy in their pure, raw form.  

Here I use the mushrooms in as a garnish in a carpaccio made the old way: pounded cutlets of non-luxury beef (eye round) as opposed to using the less-flavorful, but still popular tenderloin.

Tenderloin is soft, and, when tenderized with a mallet, easy to tear. On a side note, multiple Italian chefs I've worked with have told me Italians poke fun of the American love for tenderloin they see as being soft with jabs to the tune of "American's prefer to eat mush-meat". 

The recipe is easy: pound some sliced eye round ¼ inch thin between some layers of cling film or wax paper, add some sliced young beefsteak mushrooms, season with flaky salt, fresh ground black pepper.

Next, add the best extra virgin olive oil or another great tasting oil you like, some grated parmigiano reggiano, and peppery greens, maybe some soft, gentle herbs like chervil, parsley of chives if you have some. It's a great way to compare the textures and differences of raw meat and mushrooms, with the crisp, juicy texture of the beefsteaks being the star. 

I added a few other things I had on hand here that were seasonal for the early fall: the basal leaves of sochan, shredded and seasoned as you would lacinato kale, and the last of my red acorn oil from Forager's Harvest.

If you're one of my vegetarian friends, or just rich in beefsteak mushrooms, you can always make an all-beefsteak version. Add extra shaved cheese slices, and eat it quickly before the mushrooms wilt from the salt as it softens the texture.

More

Beefsteak Mushrooms