Photo by Mary Smiley
Provenance of Dish
I have a plethora of dried porcini and every summer I pick pounds of fresh Boletus edulis in Montana where I used to live. It's easy to cook with dried porcini, but not many know how to cook fresh porcini, so this is my favorite thing to do. Simple and delicious.
Recipe
Ingredients
For the pasta dough: (this is Mario Batali's recipe)
3 1/2 to 4 cups all-purpose flour
4 extra-large eggs
1/2 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
Mound 3 1/2 cups of the flour in the center of a large wooden cutting board. Make a well in the middle of the flour and add the eggs and olive oil. Using a fork, beat together the eggs and oil and begin to incorporate the flour, starting with the inner rim of the well. As you expand the well, keep pushing the flour up from the base of the mound to retain the well shape.
The dough will come together when half of the flour is incorporated. At this point, start kneading the dough with both hands, using the palms of your hands.
Once there is a cohesive mass, remove the dough from the board and scrape up and discard any leftover bits. Lightly reflour the board and continue kneading for 6 more minutes. The dough should be elastic and a little sticky.
Wrap the dough in plastic and allow to rest for 30 minutes at room temperature.
Roll or shape as desired.
For the mushrooms:
Fresh porcini mushrooms (one medium is plenty) or a few small buttons
1 T Butter
1 teaspoons Olive oil
salt and pepper
½ t thyme fresh
1 t chervil fresh (grow your own, it's not easy to find in the US) (substitute parsley)
½ C Parmigiano Reggiano cheese grated
Instructions
Cut the pappardelle noodles and clean and prepare your porcini.
This is best made with fresh porcini if you can get them in season.
Boletes need to be browned well on both sides. They go through a slimy stage while cooking and you need to get beyond this until they get nicely browned on both sides. You want to leave them all touching the pan so they can caramelize. Don't pile them on top of each other or they will just steam. They need contact with the pan. Once one side starts to get color, turn them to the other side and continue to do this. The water content will cook off and then they will start to get a nice golden color.
Add fresh thyme and chervil to the pan while sautéing. do not crowd the pan.
Cook your noodles in well salted water and only cook a few minutes until tender. Drain the noodles but don’t throw the water away.
Add some of the pasta water to the pan of porcini once cooked and make a little sauce with the water. It will thicken up in the pan.
Add Parmigiano Reggiano to the pan and add the noodles and combine and serve. Top with a little fresh chervil.
