Porcini mushrooms grow in the forests around Bagni di Lucca and right now they are in season. It is quite common to see stands on the side of the road at this time of the year.
These mushrooms grow to an amazing size.
I actually prefer the smaller ones as I find the big ones a bit strong. Our purchase will be turned into a delicious sauce for pasta.
Hmmm.., Your pasta sounds promising!! :))))
By: Rosaly Palma Torvnes on October 11, 2011
at 5:23 pm
Yum is right. We like them in risotto! What pasta sauce do you make?
By: Charlotte on October 11, 2011
at 5:37 pm
i love risotto too. it will be a fairly simple sauce as the mushrooms are quite strong.
By: bagnidilucca on October 12, 2011
at 5:33 am
We love them and I agree with you, the smaller ones are more delicate than the large ones. I always prepare them in a sauce to accompany chestnut pasta. Some Parmesan cheese…. Divine!!!!
By: Mulino Dominillo on October 11, 2011
at 6:34 pm
i’m sure you could make a delicious sauce with these. Perhaps you need to come to BdL.
By: bagnidilucca on October 12, 2011
at 5:35 am
Sauce sounds awesome! Good luck. Wish I could taste it.
Kathy
By: Kathryn McCullough on October 11, 2011
at 7:31 pm
Do you get porcini mushrooms where you are?
By: bagnidilucca on October 12, 2011
at 5:35 am
do you go and collect them too? How lovely to have stalls like that! the small ones are generally less popular with the insects and other beasties who like to feast on them. Having dreadful fungi envi here x 🙂
By: Joanna on October 11, 2011
at 7:55 pm
i have been to collect them, without much success. It is fun searching through the forest so it doesn’t really matter.
By: bagnidilucca on October 12, 2011
at 5:37 am
Yummbo scrummbo!
By: Liz Golding on October 11, 2011
at 9:29 pm
Yum! I grew up in Michigan where Morels grew wild in the woods behind our house. As such, I love mushrooms and am a mushroom snow. I can barely tolerate the ones sold in the grocery stores here.
Happy foraging!
By: Julie on October 12, 2011
at 3:19 am
The mushrooms look great, but I also wish I knew where I could get one of those umbrellas!
By: Michael Perry on October 12, 2011
at 7:13 am
The market umbrellas here in Italy are wonderful. They seem so easy to assemble.
By: bagnidilucca on October 12, 2011
at 7:52 am
If you happened to ask a market trader . . . . 🙂
By: Michael Perry on October 12, 2011
at 8:14 am
Reason alone to live there, nothing like fresh porcini.
By: Roz on October 12, 2011
at 9:12 am
I’m drooling at the thought of pasta with fresh porcini sauce! Oh to be in Italy at this time of the year.
By: jenny@atasteoftravel on October 12, 2011
at 9:22 am
Autumn in Italy is lovely and the mushrooms are a bonus.
By: bagnidilucca on October 13, 2011
at 5:40 am
What beautiful forresty looking mushrooms! Yumo!
By: sheof108names on October 12, 2011
at 1:25 pm
They are amazing looking mushrooms and they taste great too.
By: bagnidilucca on October 13, 2011
at 5:36 am
I am so jealous that I may just hop on a plane and come over!
By: paninigirl on October 12, 2011
at 2:20 pm
You should do just that.
By: bagnidilucca on October 13, 2011
at 5:36 am
This reminds me of a trip to Florence where we first tasted the porcini mushrooms- Yummy I can just taste them !!!
By: Lorraine Wagner on October 15, 2011
at 8:29 am
They are a very special taste. The dried ones are good, but there is nothing like the fresh ones.
By: bagnidilucca on October 15, 2011
at 4:43 pm
I love mushrooms alot. specially with pasta. i wished to go on mushroom hunting when we were in italy last summer but its not that easy to find a place or to reach it. and maybe there is no cultivation in summer.
By: Fragolina on October 17, 2011
at 11:54 am
I think it is too hot and dry in summer for mushrooms.
By: bagnidilucca on October 17, 2011
at 9:40 pm
when is the best season to go mushroom hunting, and where, in italy? the colder and wetter the city, the better chance to find mushrooms?? 🙂
By: Fragolina on October 18, 2011
at 6:56 am
Autumn is the best time for porcini I think. They grow here under the chestnut forests. The conditions have to be just right for them to do well.
By: bagnidilucca on October 18, 2011
at 7:00 am