Come the end of fall It’s getting colder, the mushrooms are fewer and farther between and alot of times I’m just hoping not to get skunked. When the blewits, hens, shaggy’s, puffballs or parasols aren’t playing nice, I know I can probably run over to a patch of pine trees and grab a few slippery…
Porcini
Midwestern Pine Porcini
It was years before I picked my first porcini. I dreamed of squat little mushrooms looking like something from a fairy tale, but mostly I only found ticks. The few times I did see them, they were one at a time here and there, and saturated with bugs. Eventually my hunting buddies and I got…
A Raw Porcini Affetatti
Years ago when I was working at Pazzaluna, I was on the garde manger station making hot and cold apps, salads, and desserts, as well as curating a daily changing selection of antipasti I came up with. One of my favorite snacks, and plates to make was the affetati, an Italian platter of cured meats….
Wild Mushrooms With Garlic And Parsley
There are some recipes so timeless that they’re known across borders and cultures with the only change being their name. In France, this would be called mushrooms with persillade. In Italian it’s known as mushrooms “la loro morte” roughly “cooked to their death”, a romantically macabre way of describing something. In Spain mushrooms are cooked…
Bolete Julienne
Behold the julienne-a molten hot, cheese crusted, creamy mushroom extravaganza. Just about every hunter of Eastern European descent I’ve talked to has told me about this dish in some way shape or form, and for good reason. If you look around, there’s plenty of recipes for mushroom julienne out there, most using button mushrooms. When…
Hot Beef Commercial, With Dried Bolete Mushrooms
Childhood food memories, everyone has some, those dishes that take you back in time. A hot beef commercial is one of mine. It reminds me of being a kid, about waist high on my Father. My dad and I would make trips back and forth to Willmar Minnesota from Grove City where the family…
Peas With Porcini, Proscuitto, And Radish Snaps
This recipe came about after I talked to my friend Jess Flemming, food writer for the St. Paul Pioneer press. Jess and I met last year when she did a piece on the restaurant I was working at. Jess recently dedicated a piece of flesh to pork: she agreed to get a tattoo of the…
Fresh Porcini Butter
It’s been a banner year for mushrooms in Minnesota. The cool temperature and rain has made the forests erupt in boletes. I’ve seen enormous Leccinums with stems larger than I have ever come across, two bitter Tylopilus species I have never witnessed, bi-color boletes galore, and it goes without saying, plenty of porcini. I’ve taken…
Gamberoni Portofino, With Porcini-Soy Cream
This is a very special recipe to me. At first glance it looks like some shrimp with vegetables and mushrooms.In reality, it’s a snap shot of my formative years as a cook, when I was working under a man from Rome I adored; trying to learn all that I could from him. In the…
Return Of The King, Bolete.
It was a day I’ll never forget. I was prepping the line getting ready for service at the restaurant. At about four, I took a break to grab some staff meal I could shovel in my face (you don’t have time to lollygag while eating in a kitchen). While eating, I multi-tasked checking my email…
Gnocchi, Northern Pike-Porcini Ragu and Escarole
This recipe is an great example of how Italian and cooking has shaped the recipes that float through my mind. Geographically speaking, you wouldn’t think that Minnesota shares much with Italy, but that just isn’t so. Minnesota is the land of ten thousand lakes, formed by the movement of glaciers so long time ago. Interestingly…
Cream of Porcini Soup with Black Walnut Pesto
A little while ago I got to make a fun dinner for my grandparents and their friends. We usually do around one or two of these each year, and they are a lot of fun for me to put together. Instead of making things I know everyone will have tasted before in Minnesota, like walleye…
Pheasant-Lentil Soup, With Dried Boletes
There is an Italian tradition of eating lentils on new years eve for good luck. Since I am a self proclaimed Italian, It’s a tradition I try to do when I remember. Typically I like the lentils in the form of a soup or stew with meat in it. Although I do remember a particularly…