Monday, June 2, 2008

Celebrating the Season: Morels

The summer is oficially here, and this week's additions to the Farmers Market are nectarines, black cherries, anchovies, and - yes, yes, YES! - morels. Fresh and deliciously smelling. I honored this first handful with very simple preparation to preserve their forest appeal: washed them carefully (morels are pretty firm and don't absorb water as fast as other 'shrooms, and they really need to be soaked to remove all the sand, pine needles and small insects that they hide in their wrinkled cups and hollow stems), cut large ones in half, and fried in half olive oil/half butter, with salt, pepper, and a little minced shallot added towards the end of the cooking.

Served over fresh pappardelle pasta (on pasta making later).
Should be careful with this aged Parmigiano-Reggiano. It's taste was almost too strong for the 'shrooms.

Next time I may make a creamy sauce with goat cheese and herbs, or add other mushrooms, fresh or dried, and may be some wine and garlic. This first time it just had to be that simple.


2 comments:

Judy@nofearentertaining said...

I am so sad. Living in Florida I have never seen or tasted fresh morels! That looks so nice and simple!

amarillo said...

Judy, dried morels are very good too, you soak them in water and then cook them the same way.

Any wild mushrooms in Florida?