Little Piggy / Porcini
- johncrallie
- Oct 2, 2021
- 2 min read
On my recent trip to Italy, I came across a restaurant that had the most amazing display of porcini mushrooms outside the entrance that I had to stop and take a photo of them.
I had dinner in the restaurant that night. Upon leaving the restaurant a spotted a young chef preparing an antipasto plate that contained the mushrooms. It was so beautiful that it motivated me to duplicate the dish and share it with you today.
But first, a little information about the porcini mushrooms themselves.
Porcini mushrooms are a delicious, addition to Italian cuisine. They boast a strong nutty flavor, making them a very popular gourmet mushroom.
Like many other edible mushrooms, porcini are mycorrhizal, therefore the underground vegetative growth of the mushroom, called the mycelia, enters into a relationship with the roots of plants.
Because of the complex relationship that occurs in nature, porcini cannot be cultivated easily. Depending on where you live, they could be nearly impossible to find fresh and extremely expensive to acquire. In the many years I have lived here in Washington I have only seen them in the market once, and they were priced at $38.00 per pound.
The name porcini means "piglets" in Italian. I imagine this is because they a short and fat with thick stems. I suppose this is also related to the fact that when you see them growing in the natural habitat, they resemble a small herd of wild pigs, or at least I think so.
Porcini mushrooms grow a large cap, that can be up to 12 inches in diameter. It's usually brown or reddish-brown in color with a slightly sticky texture.
The underside of the cap is made up of a spongy material. If you look closely you can see the tiny tubes from which spores are released.
Porcini are known for their thick stem. The picture on the right is a good representation of an average fat porcini stem.
Porcini mushrooms form beneficial relationships with pine trees and the roots of plants and trees. The plant is better able to absorb water and nutrients through the larger surface area provided by the mushroom’s mycelia, and the mushroom derives sugars from the plant it is attached to.
You can find porcini mushrooms on the ground in hardwood forests near pine, chestnut, hemlock, and spruce trees normally during the summer to fall months.
They're most famously found in Italy, but they're also found in other parts of the world that host a similar climate and type of vegetation.
Although I was not able to find porcini mushrooms for the reasons mentioned above, I substituted portobello mushrooms in the dish. I believe it worked out quite well. It is
quick and easy to prepare and makes a great starter to any meal or it can stand alone as a passable hors d'oeuvres at your next festive gathering.
Please view the video from the link below
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