If you’ve ever been to Italy, I’m quite sure you’ve tried fettuccine with porcini mushrooms.

Really simple and yet delicious, the earthy taste of the fettuccine with porcini brings immediately to mind woods and autumn. It’s not unusual for Italian people to say that the best dishes are also the simplest, pasta with tomato sauce, fettuccine with mushrooms…  to summarize: the less ingredients the better.

You could try to make fettuccine at home with my recipe for fresh egg pasta. It is so easy you won’t ever buy pasta again!

Fettuccine with porcini mushrooms: tips and tricks

Porcini mushrooms can be very expensive abroad, if you cannot find fresh or frozen, and have only a small amount of dried porcini, add some button mushrooms. The porcini taste is very intense and a little goes a long way actually.
If you make fresh pasta for this recipe, I would double the recipe and make more fettuccine, then freeze the amount you won’t be using. When you need it, you can simply drop the frozen pasta into boiling water and cook for 5 minutes.

You can add sausages or bacon if you want a richer recipe.

Fettuccine with porcini mushrooms: Ingredients

• 500gr of fresh or frozen porcini mushrooms (or a package of dried ones)
• 600gr of fresh home made fettuccine (450gr if you use dried fettuccine)
• 1 onion
• 3 tbsp of extravirgin olive oil
• 1/2 glass of white wine
• salt and pepper to taste
• 40gr of coarse salt for the boiling water
• Grated Parmigiano Reggiano or Grana Padano
• chopped parsley to garnish

Method

Step 1
Bring 3lt of water to a boil into a pot. In the meantime prepare the porcini. If you are using fresh porcini, clean them with a wet cloth. Don’t wash them under running water, otherwise they will soak and loose their texture. If you choose dried porcini, soak them in lukewarm water for at least 30 minutes or overnight. Cut the porcini into regular pieces o into slices.

Step 2

Chop the onion finely and put it in a pan with the oil. Let it cook over low heat until it is translucent and has a soft texture. Add the porcini, some salt and pepper to taste and stir.

Step 3

When the mushrooms start to sizzle add the wine and let it evaporate. As soon as the wine has evaporated cover with a lid for about 8/10minutes. Turn off the heat, set aside and cover with a lid.

Step 4

As the water boils, add the salt and then the fettuccine. If you are using fresh pasta it will cook in 3-5 minutes. Otherwise follow the direction on the package. Remember to check the cooking point at least 1 minute before the time indicated. the mushrooms and, if they are too dry, add some cooking water.

Step 5
Put the pan with the porcini sauce on low medium heat and add the pasta. Add a couple of tablespoons of the water used to boil the pasta.  Stir fry for a minute, if it’s too dry add some more water. Taste for saltiness, then add a handful of chopped parsley and server with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and black pepper.

Love porcini? try also my porcini pork roast!