Skip to main content

Spelt Spaghetti with Morchella Deliciosa Mushrooms



The precious mushroom is this one. I don't remember when was the last time I ate one, and fresh! Possibly 20 years???? In NZ I can find some super expensive dried ones from the French deli shops, but I never buy them. I prefer dried porcini mushrooms. And then, last Saturday, our friend Martina invited us to her place in the mountains, in the Adamello Natural Park.









I like the sea, the lakes, the countryside, the cities and the hills, but most of all I love the mountains. At heart I will always remain a mountain person, and for me no food beats the mountain food, especially if you forage it!




Well, foraging with a little bit of cheating this time! These were in Martina's garden, growing naturally under some trees. She left them there for us to find....



Ohhhh, I love mushrooms, and the Spugnola (the Italian name for morchella) is one of the best!!! Martina just cleaned them and cut them and cooked them in a pan with a little extra virgin olive oil, a little salt, and a little parsley.


No garlic, we didn't have any, but sometimes it is better to feel the pure taste of the morchella!



She served it with spelt spaghetti. Only those few mushrooms gave enough flavour to 5 plates of pasta, and what a flavour!!! I am still thinking about it!!!


And to wash it all down, a nice Wine from Franciacorta. What a great day in the mountains, thank you Martina!

Photos by Alessandra Zecchini©
Labels:

Comments

  1. PamMay 31, 2010 at 11:44 PM

    Great morels! Bet they were delicious and wish I could forage for some! What a fun time! Way to go! Have a good day!

    ReplyDelete
  2. RachanaJune 1, 2010 at 12:58 AM

    Beautiful Clicks! The Spaghetti looks so delicious.
    Have a nice day!

    ReplyDelete
  3. DailyChefJune 1, 2010 at 2:31 AM

    I love your photos, especially of the cow, the flower, and the mushroom! Well done!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Vikis KitchenJune 2, 2010 at 12:46 AM

    Beautiful pictures dear. Love the way you presented the nature....can't take my eyes off it:)True, Fresh mushrooms are rare and tasty.Spaghetti looks absolutely delicious.
    Btw, thanks for the lovely comment. I got the background from the below link. http://simplyblogitbackgrounds.blogspot.com/
    I have a button on the bottom right of my blog and you can reach there. So many layouts and easy instructions....Its a much useful for a person like me:)

    ReplyDelete
  5. AlessandraJune 2, 2010 at 2:10 AM

    Thank you Viki, so helpful...I don't know if I will want something complicated for my blog, but my daughter would like to play around with backgrounds :-)

    Thank you again

    XX
    A.

    ReplyDelete
  6. ArantxaJune 2, 2010 at 5:15 AM

    Lovely Morels!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Vidya ChandrahasJune 2, 2010 at 5:18 AM

    Thank you for visiting my blog...pictures are very nice...wonderful m.d.mushrooms!!! spaghetti looks yummm

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to make Rose Turkish Delights (Lokum), and Sweet New Zealand

Rose Turkish Delights (Lokum) Before I start I would like to say that I don't have a sugar thermometer, essential if you are really into confectionery, and that I didn't use much sugar for these Turkish delights. Many recipes use much more sugar, and it is not that I wanted to make a low sugar treat here (it is still pretty sweet), it is just that making it at home really makes me realize how much sugar there is already in my diet, and if I can have something with a little less... well, why not! This method is 'home friendly' i.e. these can be made at home with very little effort and equipment, and the recipe comes from my book  Sweet As...  where I also have the recipe for lavender and orange blossom Turkish Delights. Ingredients 1 l water 300 g sugar 2 tbsp lemon juice 100 g cornflour 1 tbsp frozen raspberries 1 tbsp rose water icing sugar (very little) and cornflour (lots) to dust. In a pot put hal
9 comments
Read more

Home Made Marzipan Sweets

This is another recipe from my book Sweet As , and something that I love to make for Xmas. I would like to say that for marzipan you should get the best almonds around, natural, but here in New Zealand the almonds taste different from the ones in Italy. They are imported, not sure where from most of the time, but they are not top grade almonds. Still, with a few tips, you can make your marzipan taste great even with 'regular' almonds! Buy them natural, not blanched, you need to blanche then yourself or the result will be too dry. To blanch them you need to put them in boiling water for a couple of minutes, and then add cold water and take the skin off, one by one. For this recipe you will need: 200 g almonds 100 g icing sugar 5 apricot kernels. As I was saying before, the almond here have little taste, so I like to collect the stones from apricot and get the almonds out. They are a real pain to crack! In the photo above you can see apricot stones and kernels. The apricot kernel
13 comments
Read more

Kamo Kamo Maori Squash and Italian Borlotti Beans

A crop which gives me great pleasure is borlotti beans, not only for their flavour but also because I love the idea of growing protein food! I eat fresh borlotti, or I dry them and then use them to make nice soups and stews; in particular I like soups with pumpkins, but since this year I am traveling on, I will not enjoy the pumpkins that are growing in my garden. So I tried a different 'pairing'. A friend gave me some kamo kamo, the traditional Maori squash, and told me that the way to eat it is to boil it (skin on) and then cut it and spread it with butter (or olive oil...) salt and pepper, and scoop the flesh out with a fork. I had two kamo kamo so I boiled one (as a was told) and cut the other and sauted with a drop of olive oil and other vegetables from my garden: red onion, and celery. Then I added the beans and some water, salt and pepper, and cooked everything until the beans were soft. I added water little by little, when necessary, and I thought that this would be goo
9 comments
Read more