Right now porcini mushrooms (also known as cepes in Frech or eekhoorntjesbrood in Dutch) are abundant in Dutch forests. Since good quality fresh porcini mushrooms are usually next to impossible to find, I jumped at the chance to get some to make pappardelle ai funghi porcini.
Fresh porcini mushrooms should be firm and the spores (underneath the cap) should be white as shown in the photo. Stay away from porcini that are soft or have yellow spores, since they will become mushy and smell badly when you sauté them. Even in Italy I noticed that such bad porcini mushrooms are sold at ridiculously high prices.
There are three ways to make fresh pasta with porcini: with olive oil, parsley and garlic, with tomatoes, and with cream. This time I opted for the latter.
Ingredients
For 2 servings
250 grams (0.6 lbs) fresh porcini mushrooms
1 shallot
1 Tbsp fresh flatleaf parsley, chopped
75 ml (1/3 cup) dry white wine
100 ml (0.4 cup) cream
freshly grated parmigiano reggiano
30 grams (2 Tbsp butter)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 eggs
200 grams semola di grano duro (semolina flour)
Preparation
Make fresh pappardelle or tagliatelle from the eggs and the flour using my instructions for making fresh pasta.
Cut the mushrooms into 8 mm (1/3 inch) slices. Keep 4-6 of the nicest looking slices and dice the rest (brunoise).
Melt the butter in a non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat and sauté the porcini slices for a few minutes on each side until they are golden.
Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper on both sides and transfer to a plate and keep warm in the oven (at 125C/250F or so).
Sauté the shallot in the remaining butter over medium heat until translucent.
Add the chopped porcini mushrooms, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Sauté over medium high heat until golden. Meanwhile, bring a big pot of water to a boil for the pasta.
Add the wine and stir until most of it has evaporated.
Add the cream, stir, and reduce the heat to very low.
Cook the pappardelle for a few minutes in boiling salted water.
Drain the pasta, reserving some of the cooking water, and add to the mushrooms together with freshly grated parmigiano and parsley.
Toss to mix, adding a bit of the cooking water if it is too dry.
Serve on warm plates and top with the sautéed porcini slices. Sprinkle with a bit of freshly grated parmigiano and parsley. Serve immediately.
Wine pairing
This pairs well with a mellow earthy oaked red wine or a buttery oaked dry white wine. We enjoyed it with a 2001 Gran Reserva Rioja, a classic mellow elegant tempranillo-based red from Spain.
Stefan's Gourmet Blog 
Fantastic looking mushrooms Stefan. They must be delicious. I will be in the south of France for a few days next week and we plan to get our hand on them and cook some. I probably would have had this with a big, buttery, oaky Chardonnay. That is if I could get one. They are not very fashionable these days.
Inspirational stuff,
Conor
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They were delicious. Hopefully my post can help a bit to select good quality cepes while you are there.
Perhaps you could try finding a Meursault or Chassange Montrachet, some of the buttery oaky Chardonnays from Burgundy. Unfortunately they might be quite pricey though.
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Thanks Stefan. We will be down south and will probably stick with local wines. It is the done thing (and costs a lot less).
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That is certainly true, and a great way to get to know the wines from the region. That is what we mostly do, too, when visiting a wine region.
You might be able to find Limoux chardonnay, they are from the south of France, great value and often oaked.
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I will make a point of looking for some and we will toast you as we eat.
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🙂
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Wow that looks divine! I have to try this someday. Another impressive post, as usual.
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Thanks! I don’t have a clue whether fresh porcini are available at all in the USA.
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Me either. I am sure in some specialty grocery they are. Not in my local grocery though. Could I substitute cremini or portobello?
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Sure, or shii take. Even regular mushrooms won’t be bad.
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I love this. Though the only porcini we can get stateside is dried. So I’ll have to try this with other mushrooms. Which is a shame as porcini is really good.
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It is. What you could do is use a mixture of reconstituted porcini and fresh mushrooms, and add the soaking liquid after the wine and let it evaporate before adding the cream. This will give a more woodsy flavor than fresh porcini, but it’s still great.
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That’s a great idea, thank you!
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OK, I’m really hungry now. This dish looks and sounds superb! Very simple, few ingredients yet they are stellar ingredients that you let shine. Beautifully done.
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Thanks, Richard. That is exactly what Italian cuisine should be like.
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Those are some fantastic porcini mushrooms, Stefan, and you used them to their best advantage in a simple pasta dish. No need to gild the lily. Let their flavor carry the day.
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I want this! There are a ton of mushroom foragers around Seattle–I should see if I can find these fresh! If not, there are chanterelles everywhere, which would be different but not bad at all.
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I hope you’ll be able to find them — I don’t know whether porcini mushrooms can be found in the US.
Chanterelles are certainly not bad either, but might call for a different recipe. In Italy chanterelles are called finferli and often eaten with polenta and gorgonzola.
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Followed your excellent recipe with dried porcini found in New York supermarket. Instructions for reconstituting mushrooms were for 1 cup of stock,water or wine. Used what was left of yesterday’s white burgundy. Then used the wine flavored by the porcini. It smelled great and my wife who is an excellent cook, instantly declared this a meal worth repeating. Thanks
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Porcini, aka King Boletus, aka ceps, Boletus edulis can be found wild in much of North America. I live in Oregon and I’ve found them in Washington, OR and Calif. growing wild. I’ve never looked for them in markets, so can’t speak to that. Today we found about 2 dozen porcini, which is what brought me here. This recipe looks great and I can’t wait to try it. (Tonight however my better half made porcini risotto.)
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You’re so lucky. They do grow in the forests about an hour from here, but (1) it is illegal here to pick them and (2) there are some poisonous varieties that resemble the real thing, so you have to know what you’re doing. Let me know how you like the pappardelle.
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