Beautiful Porcini

Thanks to the unique combination of cool climate and rainforest in Oregon and Washington state, we can get porcini in the spring and the fall. Last week some outstanding examples started appearing in the markets.




What do you do with these? Well, they make fantastic risotto for one, and an italian friend suggested that you should just eat them, raw, with olive oil, salt, parsley, lemon and parmesan. (LUXURY!)

But when life gives us porcini, we make pasta. We sliced this thin, and sauteed it with garlic and red pepper flake in olive oil, then added two large diced heirloom tomatoes, (which have also started appearing at the market lately) and about a tablespoon of minced nepitella, some salt and pepper, and then let that cook down into a sauce. (About five minutes.) Then we tossed it with a pound of angel hair pasta.