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"follow a path...find your recipe"
MUSHROOMS ON “THE SECRETS OF ABRUZZO”
(Part I)
When you love nature it is not a sacrifice to get up early in the morning to reach one of the many prairies of our "Green Region of Europe". Every city, every country in Abruzzo has a nearby park, a regional or state reserve. There are alternate landscapes of vast karstic levels such as the “Gran Sasso” to the Major Highlands, the deep canyons of the “Maiella”, the extensive forests of the “Monti della Laga”. We find endless rocky environments and high pastures. Abruzzo has the southernmost Apennines in Europe.
For this reason we have mushroom picking in almost all the "Aquilano" and "Teramano" territory between 1.000 e i 2000 m. o.s.l., in places like Canistro, Tagliacozzo, Pizzoli, Montereale, Campotosto, Sante Marie and Torimparte if you are in the "Aquilano" , and Isola del Gran Sasso, Rocca Santa Marie, Castelli e Valle Castellana instead if you are in the "Teramano" territory just to mention some of them.
For a little more than just a walk this time I chose Mount “San Franco” Saint Frank, not far from the slopes of the “Gran Sasso”. I’ll go searching for the "Carpophores" called mushrooms by us ordinary people. However, I must first point out two important things for those, like me, who want to go for mushrooms: the first thing is to get a permit card for gathering them, otherwise better go with who has one; the second, if you do not know mushrooms, once collected better contact a mycologist or a health district to check their edibility.
The last option, to avoid running into unpleasant situations, I recommend you do a relaxing walk to see and admire the wonderful fruits on the fields but, after that, visit one of the many farms throughout the territory where you will find both cultivated mushrooms or spontaneous and buy them safely.
Made these premises, not far from the Gran Sasso cableway, near the town of “Assergi”, which is a fraction of the Municipality of L'AQUILA (AQ), along the road that connects the Capannelle Cross “Passo delle Capannelle” to “Assergi”, just before the junction for the Saint Frank water spring “Sorgente di San Franco” at an altitude around 1600 m. we find the best fields for the mushroom search.
It’s a fact that mushroom beds are many in Abruzzo, but the best areas are on slopes with altitudes going from 1000m. at 2000m.
I’m in the month of September and on the first sunny day, after several rainy ones, I decide to go searching for mushrooms on a little hill not far from the S. Franco water spring. Here mushrooms can be found almost everywhere.
For our recipe, all edible mushrooms are fine, but this time I focus on the field mushrooms (Agaricus Campestris and similar) that I’ll easily find in the meadows and pastures around the water spring. A couple of big mushrooms per person invited at dinner will be enough for my recipe. So with just a walk, and a little luck, I’ll find the main ingredient of my need.
I Bring along a wicker basket with a wide base to store mushrooms and a small knife to cut them off the ground. Important for the recipe is to take mushrooms of the right size, more precisely those mushrooms with a hat diameter (pileo) of size at least 8-10 cm. in order to obtain nice slices when they will be cut.
My recipe will serve four persons so I’ll need to gather about eight/ten big beautiful fresh mushrooms. One or two more mushrooms will be useful in case I need them.
Walking puts me in a good mood, makes me relax and I forget the tiring days I face each week. In the green and stony hill, I feel a different air, cleaner, light, and fresh.
Over the meadows several cows of various colors are ruminating on the grass, wetted by the night dew. As I begin finding my first mushrooms it doesn’t take me much to find all the ones I need for my recipe.
At the same time my appetite grows while I begin my way home where I’ll prepare, for my friends and I, the recipe of my grandparents.
In every region of Italy mushrooms are fried, but we “Abruzzesi” have the secret for deep fried mushrooms you will never forget, once you tasted them. This is the way I'll prepare them once back home.
Ingredients, mushrooms freshness, added to the required preparation attention are the secrets of our recipe.
It’s fundamental to have fresh mushrooms, and ingredients as it’s also very important to prepare them in the right way. The first important thing is that mushrooms should be cooked the same day they get gathered. However, before frying them, a secret is to leave them a few hours in the fridge because cold foods fry better, giving us a much better crispy fry. If you don’t use a fryer, which allows frying control, but are using a pan, better if it has a high top edge. The second important thing is that, when frying mushrooms, they must be completely submerged by the oil and its temperature, which depends on the kind of oil that is used, must be kept high, stable as much as possible, and under the high smoke point. It’s also important not to pack the mushrooms in the pan. While frying, just add the them a little at a time so they won’t stick together and the oil temperature won’t get low.
Best served right away. You’ll notice a great difference.
Soon part II- the recipe of our Deep Fried Golden Mushrooms on " THE SECRETS OF ABRUZZO "
Giuseppe Libero