Dried Porcini Mushrooms

At last, fresh porcini—wild boletus edulis mushrooms—are occasionally available in some markets in the U.S. The recipes Chick-Pea, Spinach, and Dried Wild Mushroom Soup, Chick-Pea Soup with Pancetta and Dried Wild Mushrooms describe ways to cook them. But even if they were as plentiful and as cheap as beans, fresh porcini would still not make the dried kind obsolete.

Dried porcini are an ingredient on their own, different but no less fascinating than the fresh. As the mushrooms dry, all the luscious, moist texture disappears of course, but what is left behind is a concentrated, musky, powerfully rousing forest scent. Thus the role of dried porcini is that of a unique aromatic agent, a part it plays with much variety in pasta and risotto, with all meats and some fish, and with many vegetables.