In this month of August it was raining quite a lot, so it was predictable that there would be mushrooms soon to come 🙂 the firsts I found at the local market were these very beautiful Chanterelles.

These mushrooms are very good, personally I like them as much as the more valuable Porcini…but let me say that “finferli” is one of the italian names (also “gallinacci” can be called, and some other names too), but for me these mushrooms are only “galilì”, in my dialect 😀

The best way to cook Chanterelle in my opinion is to cook them in a simple way: extra virgin olive oil, few garlic, parsley and maybe some chili, that’s all they need 🙂

I like them very much with pasta, but they are also perfect as a side dish with some good meat, or to make a Risotto, and also with polenta.

Like the porcini, also Chanterelles require a good amount of patience to clean them: don’t wash them in water, never, but use a wet tissue/towel and help yourself with a soft brush to remove all the ground (which is not nice to feel in our teeth 😀 ). Mushrooms are like a sponge, if you wash them they will release a lot of water while cooking, and you will lose a lot of flavor.

It’s a long job, but you can be sure that it is worth it.

Let’s see this simple recipe now 🙂

INGREDIENTS (4 people):

• 360-400g of long pasta (spaghetti, linguine, tagliatelle, mafaldine, trenette, etc.)
• 400g of clean Chanterelle, fresh
• 2 cloves of garlic
• one bunch of parsley
• extra virgin olive oil (3-4 tablespoons about)
• salt
• a knob of butter (optional)

1. First of all let’s cut the mushrooms: the very small ones don’t need to be cut, they are also nice to see, instead the bigger ones we must cut them in half or also in 4, the important thing is that all the pieces must be of similar size, to cook homogeneously.
2. Take a pan, and heat the extra virgin olive oil, and put also the pasta in a high pot with boiling salted water. Then squash the garlic with the blade of the knife and add it to the oil, and when the garlic gets some color, discard it.
3. Now put the mushrooms in the pan, at middle/low heat, and let them cook until the pasta is ready (so, no more than 10 minutes, about, check the time on the package). If you would like you can add a knob of butter too, it fits well with them. Then just before the pasta is ready add some salt on the mushrooms. The mushrooms must keep a good consistence and they don’t have to get too much soft.
4. Now that the pasta is ready, drain it and drop it into the pan, add also a couple of ladles of the water where the pasta was cooked, and mix until the liquid is absorbed.
5. Cut the parsley and pour it on the pasta.
6. Serve it, add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, and enjoy 🙂 easy, right?

PS: if you would like, you can simmer the chanterelles with half glass of dry white wine until reduced. It’s also good, but I prefer this simple way, I like to preserve the taste of the fresh mushrooms as much as possible.

And here the same recipe using the saffron milk cap mushrooms (Lactarius deliciosus):