It’s that time of year.
Porcini only grow on a hot day under chestnut or oak tree’s after it has rained.
NOW THAT IS SPECIAL.
So when I see my vendors with cases and cases of porcini
we cook porcini too, when you buy your mushrooms
the vendor also supplies you with
nepitella– catmint
an incredibley wonderful combination with garlic, olive oil and salt.
We have grilled the caps, made pasta sauces, soup and risotto
Fall has come to Tuscany, finally.
The air is crisp and the leaves are changing the hillsides to a festival of color.
The olive harvest has begun,
fireplaces are lit
and
chestnuts are roasting over an open fire.
I am off to Chianti for the last Chianti Experince for this year.
Fingers crossed that the rain holds off until Friday.
We will be celebrating the new oil with a fabulous meal in Trequanda.
Another cooking class with Susan at La Petraia.
Dario of course.
and some new discoveries as always.
This winter will be used for a new project from the
Divina Cucina Kitchen
Stayed tuned for updates.
What does a Tuscan Kitchen Diva have for lunch?
Celebrating the season…
Fried polenta with grilled sausage and twice cooked rapini!
Nice post. I’m curious what you will eat at your celebration 🙂
I can only saw … wow! A first time visitor to your site and I see porcini, porcini and more porcini. It must be wonderful to have access to this much of the real thing. I see these horribly small packages with dried mushrooms in the grocery store and it’s just sad. Thankfully, I have parents who ship chantarelles to me, picked in the woods I grew up in.
Christina
http://www.ramblemagazine.com
You are so lucky! 🙂
You are fortunata! Those photos are fabulous…wow, what porcinis! Your lunch looks scrumptuous. Happy Autumn!
Oh my goodness, we don’t get porcini mushrooms like those up here in Milan. BTW I LOVE the title of your post!
Susan IS ” Porcini Chronicles”!
inspired this entry!
Even in Tuscany right now we don’t get those porcini either. most have come from Croatia!
but have been fabulous.
the weather here has not been wet or hot at the right times.
except for small local consumption.
My girlfriend Bea always has some porcini near where she lives in the hills above Florence.