Dream of mushroom-pickers.

Ooh, lovely, Katarina! I can almost smell them! I am off to Florence in the morning to the huge food market - Mercato San Lorenzo, to buy exactly the same thing. I can never quite believe how much they cost in British supermarkets: I use dried porcini by the big handful in stews and casseroles and pates, and this is the time of year to get them. Fabulous flavour.

Can you pick them free, where you are? Here we have very bad season, as August and September were very dry and hot. So far bad season for mushroom pickers.

You lucky lucky people , I'm green with envy ..

Actually, yes we can, Katarina, but you have to go and buy a permit from the town hall and they have big displays out next door so you know what to look for and an expert on hand, so you don't poison yourself by accident. Mind you, he's not there for more than a couple of days in August, which is when we start mushroom hunting. The season started quite well, I gather, but it has just been too dry for the last three months. My favourite neighbor, Teresa, gave me a huge plastic bagful of fresh porcini from her freezer a couple of years ago, and they were a sad disappointment. They were bland and a bit slimy, and had very little of the gorgeous flavour of the dried ones. I was in Florence food market this morning, sifting and sniffing and buying biggish bags of the dried ones: my shopping bag smelled fabulous all day.

I do not know what are porcini, but dried mushrooms are good (mushrooms should never be put in plastic bag!!!Golden rule!).
Oh, I love Italy and its markets. The very specific food markts are in Palermo. Women for instance do not go outside, they have baskets on ropes and if they hear a "marketer" calling in the street, they just send him basket down with money, he puts there fish or mushrooms or spices and they pull it up. Funny, but I like it. Very comfortable in houses without lifts.

Oh, I know about the plastic bag rule, Katarina, but obviously Teresa doesn't, and as the mushrooms she gave me were heading for her freezer (!), I think we got them just after she had bagged them up. When they get a glut, if they can't eat it, dry it, or bottle it, it heads for the freezer, whether it is appropriate or not.
I've seen film of the "basket on a string" shopping down south. It doesn't happen round here, and to be honest with you, you'd have to be on very good and trusting terms with your supplier in order not to be cheated.

p.s. Porcini are the kings of the mushroom world - I think they are sometimes referred to as ceps, and command an eye-wateringly high price, even when they are fresh. The dried ones have a very intense aroma, and are incredibly good. Here they say "Da morire!" (to die for) In Sainsburys in the UK we once worked out (and this must be 7-8 years ago) that if you worked out the unit price of the tiny little packets on the shelves, you would have been paying something like £120 per kilo. Ouch.

Wonderful, delicious!

Gattina,

I know now what kind of mushroom it is. Yes, it is good, but I am not so big feinshmecker to give regularly so much money for that. I am happy with whatever real Italian mushroom rizotto with a white vine. For instance Chardonnay from Venice area.Hmmmmm.

I pick as many as I can here in the UK. This year lots of field mushrooms with a very strong taste and then my personal favourite, the Giant Puffball!

Giant Puffball! My Godness! Sounds dangerously.

Ah! I've heard that puffballs make good eating, but have never been fortunate enough to try one. I've never seen one growing here, but I'm sure they must exist.
Katarina, I can see I shall have to set up a mail order business selling reasonably priced dried porcini to non-feinshmeckers (What a glorious word!)

Yeees, that sounds like the start of a big business....

Giant puffballs are truly delichious. Peel skin off, slice thickly and fry in butter and garlic, yummy! I know they grow here in the uk but as for elsewhere?

oooooooooooo italian market.... olives, mushrooms, tomatos............... yummmmmmmmmmmmmmm
bread!!!

:( i'm on diet you can tell

Fantastic pic katarina, I'll dream with rice with shitakes...

Shitakes, another fine mushroom!

Hi Aleyna, the photo is from market in Barcelona, Spain.
Good apetite!

oh LOL!!! well, wherever they come from I'd love have them lightly fried on butter with garlic...both spanish or italian accent... :o)

Hmmm. I love them done like that as well. You know, butter gives a very good taste to it. And softness. Hmmm.