Dried Porcini Mushrooms Recipes

Dried Porcini mushrooms are a great alternative if fresh Porcini are out of season or if you want to strengthen the flavor of your mushroom recipes. When dried, the Porcini mushrooms become a concentration of umami flavor and can be stored safely for months. Like tea bags, the dried porcini release flavor into the water when rehydrated. Those juices and the Porcini can be added to recipes to intensify their mushroom's aroma.

Porcini mushrooms are usually found in the wild during a short period between September and November. They cannot be cultivated, so it is a common hobby in Italy and France to venture into the forest to forge them.

Due to their high demand, they are becoming increasingly difficult to find and are often imported from abroad.

As some countries do not use them as much, they are more abundant and easier to find.

Drying the Porcini is a convenient way of storing them for a long time and profiting from the large harvest that is not locally consumed.

Dried porcini can be added to any mushroom stir fry or recipe to add a rich, umami flavor.

They can be used in Risotto, meat pies, as a side dish to fried polenta, or for Bruschetta and pizza toppings.

Jump to:

• How to dry the Porcini
• Worms in dried porcini
• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Mix them with regular mushrooms
• Uses
• Substitutions
• Equipment
• Storage
• Top tip
• 📋Dried porcini mushrooms
• Porcini mushrooms in Norway

How to dry the Porcini

If you are lucky and harvest more Porcini than you can eat, drying them is very easy.

1. You first have to clean them with a brush and remove the roots.
2. Cut them into slices of ¼ inch - 5 cm
3. Lay them over a flat rack. A laundry drying rack is perfect.
4. Leave them for a few days until the mushrooms are dried

Hint: you can also use a Food Dehydrator or dry them in the oven at low temperature for a few hours.

Worms in dried porcini

When you slice the Porcini, you may find that small worms have invaded some Porcini.

Before you throw them away, let them dry, and most of the worms will leave and die.

You will see small little holes in the dried mushrooms.

Although there is a chance that some will remain.

These worms are harmless and can be eaten if you are brave enough.

You will not even notice them as they are extremely small and flavorless.

Ingredients

If you want to create a mushroom sauce or a more consistent side dish to add to a main, I recommend mixing the dried porcini with regular mushrooms to add texture.

You will need:

• Dried porcini Mushrooms
• Regular mushrooms
• Boiling water
• Salt and butter or olive oil for seasoning
• Garlic and parsley for additional flavors

See recipe card for quantities.

Instructions

Rehydrate the porcini

Hint: the water should have reached boiling temperature, but you do not need to boil the mushrooms

5. Cut them into fine pieces, as their texture tends to be meaty and chewy. If you prefer, you can also use a blender.

At this point, the mushrooms are ready to be used in the recipe you want to make.

Hint: The drained water is the most important ingredient, containing an intense umami flavor. It can be added to stocks or used to make sauces and gravies.

Mix them with regular mushrooms

The most common use of dried porcini is to mix them with regular mushrooms.

Because dried porcini do not have a great texture and tend to be chewy, regular mushrooms will bring back that smooth consistency.

5. Once the mushrooms are done, garnish with parsley and serve as a side dish or add them to your recipes

Hint: The amount of water you add depends on how juicy your mushrooms need to be.

Uses

These mushrooms can be served as a side dish to polenta or as topping on a Bruschetta.

As both polenta and bruschetta are dry, you want to have some juices on your mushrooms stir fry. Add water accordingly.

However, if you add your mushrooms to a chicken, beef pie, or quiche, you do not want to have too many juices as they will soften the pastry crust.

The water where the porcini have been soaked can be added to stock or soup.

You can add water to the stock for the risotto while cooking the rice.

For a gourmet celebration, add it to a homemade beef Consomme.

So much flavor with just one simple ingredient.

Substitutions

You cannot substitute dried porcini mushrooms with other dried mushrooms as their flavor is very different.

That is why the price of Porcini is higher than the others.

So, I think the only substitute for dried Porcini is fresh Porcini.

Equipment

You do not need any special equipment to use the dried porcini.

However, if you want to dry Porcini mushrooms, you can buy a Food Dehydrator or use a sweater laundry drying rack.

Storage

Once you have made your mushrooms stir fry, you can keep it in the fridge for 1 to 2 days.

If you need to store it for longer, you can freeze it, although fresh mushrooms do not freeze well. Their texture becomes spongy and watery.

If you are making these dried porcini mushrooms, leave your comment below I would like to hear from you. You can find more delicious ideas if you FOLLOW ME on Facebook, YouTube, or sign up to my newsletter.

Porcini mushrooms in Norway

When I lived in Norway in the early '90s, Porcini mushrooms were abundant, and no one would pick them.

As a result, all of us, Italian expatriates, would spend our September and October weekends foraging Porcini mushrooms in the wild.

Porcini grew in different settings than the Italian forests in a colder climate than Italy.

While in Italy, we would find them in the shade, they grew in the sun in Norway. In addition, due to the abundant rain, their dimensions were huge compared to the Italian Porcini.

Unfortunately, their size and moisture had also diluted their flavors, their aroma was much milder than the small Italian Porcini.

I remember my sister, who couldn't find any, stopped on the side of the road to tighten her shoelaces.

She suddenly realized that what she thought was a rock was to lift her feet. It was a gigantic Porcino.

Once we mastered the new technique, we would return home with buckets full of Porcini.

As we couldn't use them all, we found a system to dry them and keep them for the winter.

That is what I shared with you above. We used a sweater drying rack.