A simple ragu of wild mushrooms was one of the recipes on the saute station back in the day when I was working at the now-closed Trattoria Da Vinci under Chef Angelo Volpicelli. Angelo was super talented, barely spoke English, and had owned his own restaurant in Rome for 12 years. Twelve years is a…
Porcini
Mushroom Fricasee Fredy Girardet
Old cookbooks are a wealth of knowledge. Back in the day, it didn’t matter how many art directors were on set for the photo shoot, and how many different plate props you had, good food was just good food. One of my favorite old books is Fredy Girardet, a famous Swiss chef who reached the…
Toasted Porcini Aioli
During the Winter after a really good year for boletes (likely the legendary Pallidoroseus haul of 2013) I started making all kinds of things with my dried shrooms. Cooking with European porcini is easy: just throw them in anything and the flavor will take over. The porcini I pick in Minnesota (Boletus atkinsonii, or whatever…
Pigeon Pie
I talked to a hunter last year and told him I was excited to harvest pigeons. He laughed, looked at me like I was idiot, and told me he shoots them and throws them in the woods as they’re not worth eating. I kept my mouth shut. Now, I’ve never really been a hunter, spending…
Slippery Jack Coffee Rub
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…
Midwestern Pine Porcini: Boletus subcaerulescens
Update 2020 With the help of other local mushroomers, I’m relatively certain that these boletes are Boletus subcaerulescens. I’ve updated this post with new images in-situ. One thing to mention about these that was so confusing, is the “sub-caerulescens” part of the epithet. “Almost blue staining” The confusing part of the name here, and why…
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…