Agarico Delizioso

One of the most beautiful of the Agarico family of mushrooms, the saffron milkcap belongs to the subspecies Agarico lactarius, indicating that when cut or broken it exudes a yellowy milky substance, as its name implies. The saffron milkcap reaches about 4-6 cm (1¼-2½ inches) in height and has a fairly thick and meaty flat, orange-to-green coloured cap made up of concentric circles, with a depression in the centre. The edges of the cap are turned under, with the gills on the underside quite tight and of the same saffrony colour as the straight hollow stem. In Calabria it is called sanguinello or fungosanguigno because of the reddish tinge to its milk.