“Ho trovato funghi ieri. Venite a mangiarli!” (“I found mushrooms yesterday. Come eat them!”) Peppa chortled over the phone. How to refuse?
As I savored those mushrooms, what memories of my own mushroom-hunting days in our woods, in our fields
Those alzaterra (“raise the earth”) mushrooms – sorry, have no idea of their botanical name – used to pop under the oak trees up near the vineyard. I’d prepare them the way the farm women taught me and as Peppa did the other day: lightly roasted in the oven with minced garlic, a drizzle of very little olive oil and a sprinkle of salt.
Pino approved:
This was a very light lunch by Peppa standards: before the funghi, just a pasta. But whose sauces can rival Peppa’s?
As we arrived, she had just drained the pasta and was stirring it into the sauce:
And when Peppa serves up spaghetti with two forks in one hand, it’s a “culinary ballet.”
As we finished our pasta, a beaming Peppa forked up the last bit of spaghetti from the pan and I knew where that was headed: a treat for her pup, the beloved Ringo.
Peppa urged us to wipe up the sauce with bread (fare la scarpetta) to make space for the mushrooms. Her own bread pieces were for Ringo, logicamente:
Ringo was a happy pup at meal’s end (and not the only happy diner!)
Read more about wild mushrooms
Click here for a note on Peppa’s rural goodness
She seems to be a lovely person. She is always feeding you!!!!
My Mom always made extra pasta on Sundays for our dog, Fritz. He was a German boxer who loved Mom’s pasta with sugo!
Bev