Hello and welcome to venerdì. A little over a month ago, I posted a photo on Instagram with a plate of fresh gluten-free tagliatelle prepared with chestnut mushrooms and black truffle to announce that I would begin writing here on Substack, starting with a recipe for Funghi Trifolati and here we are. Finally. Let’s begin.
I don’t know a lot about mushrooms and fungus, but I do know that they are one of my favourite things to eat this time of year and I sneak them in anywhere I can. It’s an easy enough thing to do.
Growing up in Western Massachusetts, I understood that Italian immigrants, had secret spaces that they would forage in our city’s heavily forested landscape, and if I scan my own food memory from these years, all I can see in the mushroom category is a gelatinous flecked soup starter slipping with a suck and a plop from a processed red and white can into a silver saucepan. In Ireland, they were always a slippery brown feature standing proud next to the washed-out tomato on the side of a breakfast fry.
Into adulthood, the enjoyment of mushrooms began to take another shape, but it wasn’t until my relocation to Italy that I began to understood their true power. Wandering the streets of Rome, the signs and menus outside of restaurants taught me about the seasonal excitement and culinary flexibility surrounding fresh porcini, and I first came to came to know the intoxicating smell of fresh black truffles in Montisola, after Riccardo and I drove away from our local dealer, an old family friend, and he encouraged me to dip my face into the white plastic bag in my lap to take an unforgettable olfactory hit.
And my experience of fungi pretty much stood there until this past year when I was rummaging around my late father-in-laws museum-like office in Contigliano, where I accidentally discovered a book a called “Conoscere i Funghi” (Knowing Mushrooms), published in the 70’s by the Istituto per lo Sviluppo Economico Dell’Appennino and the Unione Micologica Italiana. He was an agricultural advisor for the province of Rieti in Lazio, and through the years I have heard stories about his responsibility around the certification of foraged mushrooms and truffles for sale and the planting of trees throughout the province in order to propagate their growth. Despite his absence we continue to learn and benefit from the residues and perfumes of his life that sometimes present in little artifacts like this book that I have now adopted as my own.
So, as I began to slowly turn the pages of this publication, I knew that I would never see the world or a plate of mushrooms in the same way. There were pages explaining the characteristics and principals of mushrooms, their biological significance and importance in the economics of nature, the discipline of gathering them and advice on how to respect, prepare, cook and store them. There was also an annual calendar naming over 90 species together with retro snaps so that one knows when to collect them and how to differentiate between the edible, poisonous and lethal. Mind blown.
And I thought it stopped there, until this past weekend when I was chopping and talking mushrooms with my cousin in my kitchen and he asked me “Have you watched Fantastic Fungi on Netflix?” What? No. And down another rabbit hole I went.
As hunters and gatherers and indigenous people, we once had an intimate knowledge of The Fungal Kingdom and the essential role that it plays in the earth’s ecosystem. The multisensory experience of mushrooms reignites all that is written in our DNA, calling us to relearn what we already know. Mycelium, the underground global network and its symbiotic community, are responsible for the rebirth, rejuvenation and regeneration of our planet. They are fundamental in absorbing 70% of the carbon from our atmosphere to store below the ground in a factory that contributes to life giving soil that supports our biodiversity. The 20,000 mushrooms, that are visible to us across the world’s landscape are the flowers of this network that has helped to form our race and the planet, and they are fundamental to our healing.
And to be healed and to be nourished, it is one of the main reasons why we eat. Mushrooms and fungi have a centuries old standing in traditional kitchens around the world playing an essential role in the health supporting alchemy that happens there. In an ideal situation, the overall experience of fungi offers a 360-degree wellness experience in whole body health from the forest bathing that invites us to come in contact with nature and dirt, to their consumption which helps us to decrease the risk of cancer, lower sodium and cholesterol, protect brain health, provide a source of vitamin D and to stimulate a healthier gut and immune system.
In this resurgence of mushroom culture, individuals the world over turn to regional Italian cuisine for the culinary enjoyment of mushrooms and fungi because for many, the main motivation for consuming these woodland treasures is their taste. As we move away from mass meat consumption, mushrooms impart both a smoky and savoury depth of flavour and natural umami making for a great meat replacement when called for, and they also bring a complimentary earthy flavour to cheese, eggs, meat, poultry and fish in so many forms. Foraged in the wild, or farmed en masse, mushrooms require less growing materials, water, and energy and are considered one of the planets’ most sustainable crops. They are economical and accessible to all. Sprinkle any kind of mushroom with a little love and attention and they can be transformed into the most delicious things.
We have so much to learn from this vast world, and for those who would like to nerd out and experiment with fungi, fresh and dried native mushrooms and truffles, foraging expeditions as well as an array of books and studies are only a Google away. And now, the recipe.
The Italian word trifola is another world for truffle. Summer truffle or tartufo is known as scorzone and during the winter they are called trifola nera or black truffle. I can only hypothesize that mushrooms, after they are cooked in a hot pan with olive oil, garlic and parsley must resemble truffles and for some that I am yet to know, it is this renaming of objects according to what they resemble that we see throughout the Italian language. And this term trifolati translates across the cooking of any vegetable using these 4 ingredients in this method.
Funghi Trifolati are essentially garlic mushrooms prepared in a quick and simple way offering a lot of bang for their buck. They offer a base or even a gateway to so many traditional Italian dishes. Use one type of mushroom, or mix them up, they are gorgeous either way.
Funghi Trifolati
500g mushrooms
2-3 cloves of garlic, sliced or chopped
A handful of fresh parsley finely chopped
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt + freshly ground black pepper.
Optional:
A small dried chili pepper crumbled (peperoncino)
A splash of good white wine
A squeeze of lemon
Cover the bottom of a medium frying pan with a thin film of oil. Add your garlic and dried pepper here if using. Cook garlic over low heat until translucent but you do not want it to brown or burn. Add your mushrooms tossing in the oil and garlic and turn the heat on high. Add the salt, pepper, a good splash of white wine and stir with a wooden spoon or do one of those flippy chef movements with the pan. Remove from the heat when the mushrooms have released their liquid and are tender. This will take about 5 to 10 minutes. Serve here as a simple side dish with a squeeze of lemon if preferred.
Here is a list of all the possibilities that I can think of for this dish:
· Serve Funghi Trifolati as part of an antipasto whizzed into a pâté for spreading or simply piled on top of crostini or freshly grilled bruschetta. Add a freshly poached, fried or scrambled egg here for any meal. Alternatively fold them into a silky omelette, frittata or torta salata.
· Serve them as a simple side dish or contorno or stir them into braises, soups, gravies, sauces, risotti, ragu’ and stews.
· Use meat or vegetable stock and/or grass-fed butter to elongate the mushrooms into a white sauce in bianco to wrap around fresh egg tagliatelle and pappardelle or to top homemade polenta. Cook together with some quality canned tomatoes to create the red version of the same.
· Pair mushrooms with parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme and then try to get the song out of your head.
*It is recommended that you cook mushrooms in terracotta and other natural materials for the best results.