Dried porcini mushrooms

Dried porcini are, for me — 35 years old, an editor with a suitcase full of notebooks and travel memories — one of the most reliable ingredients of European cuisine. I discovered them in Italian trattorias, Austrian mountain huts and French country inns — always with that unmistakable scent of forest, moss and damp earth. Dried porcini are culinary time capsules: they preserve the aroma and character of mushroom season and make it available at any time. Whether risotto, sauce, soup or a spread — a few grams of these brown slices turn simple recipes into real comfort food. A colleague of mine, who rarely cooks, now swears by them because with a spoonful of mushroom stock from the soaking water he makes every dish taste «professional».

The biggest advantage of dried porcini is their intensity. By removing water the aromas concentrate: nutty, earthy, slightly buttery, with fine roasted notes. When soaked they give a dark-golden, fragrant elixir that I never throw away. I pour it through a fine sieve or a coffee filter to catch any grains of sand and use it as a stock for risotto, polenta or to deglaze pan fond. A friend from Slovenia says she grew up with that scent — for her an autumn Sunday smells exactly like that. For me it smells of cozy kitchens, of patience and of the first spoonful that immediately soothes hunger.

Quality in dried porcini can be recognized by several details. The slices should be light to medium brown, with visible caps and stems, not too crumbly and pleasantly forest-scented — never musty or sharp. I pay attention to transparent origin information and preferably handpicked goods. In markets in northern Italy I once bought a mix in which other mushrooms were hidden; since then I check the package carefully. Another colleague in the editorial team, our self-proclaimed risotto pro, has the rule: «If the bag smells of forest and not of cellar, it's all good.» It sounds banal, but it is reliable.

Preparation is simple: