Porcino, Ceppatello, Bule, Brisa

Funghi in Italy really means porcino, the king of all the edible mushrooms. Its popularity is the result of both its culinary usefulness and its looks. There are a number of varieties of this fungus from the Boletus family, and all but a few are excellent. The first one to avoid is the Boletus felleus, which is so bitter it is inedible, and the second is the B. satanas, which is both poisonous and ugly. The ones to seek out are the following:

B. reticulatus: appearing from early May to June, then again from August to September, its name comes from rete, meaning ‘net’, because of the typical net-like pattern on its stem.