"Chiodino" or "Honey Mushrooms"

Chiodino Mushrooms lightly fried with garlic.

Chiodino Mushroom Risotto.

Cooking Chiodino Mushrooms.

Wild Chiodino Mushrooms.

One of the benefits of living in this part of Italy is the wide variety of wild foods. Being near to the Sibillini mountains we have the advantage of not only wildlife, but also woodland foods. With trees comes mushrooms, now of course when ever someone mentions mushrooms and Italy most people instantly think of the famous "Porcini" mushrooms world renown or truffles either white of black that grow abundantly in this area of Le Marche, in fact not far from me is the famous white truffle woodlands of this region.

I know that this is what most people assiocate with Italy and mushrooms, but once you live there its easy to find that there are many other types of mushrooms growing freely in or near woodlands. Also if like me you live in woodlands you have them growing on your doorstep making it a simple to collect them.

Now there are many varties of mushrooms here just like most parts of Europe. The most common are Porcini Mushrooms, Ovuli (these are very dangerous as the edible variety is very similar to the poisonous one and can be easily mistaken) Prataioli, Spugnole, Chiodini, Finferli, Prugnoli, Pioppini, Sfiandrine.

My favorite has be the "Chiodino" of Honey mushroom, mainly because of their delicious taste and they grow abundantly around where I live. They tend to grow at the base of large trees in large groups. They are best allow to grow for a week then collect over a period of time to allow for plenty of regrowth. I like to pick them when the tops have opened fully and can easily be cut off the stork.

These "Chiodino" mushrooms have a very good flavour its slightly sweet, but also strong and aromatic. I like to eat them freshly cut dusted with a soft brush to remove any dirt or insects, then chopped placed in a heated pan with olive oil and garlic and fried until slightly caramelised.

They are great served as an antipasta with cheeses and Salamis or served by themselves as a "Contorno" side dish.

My recipe today is for Chiodino Fungi con Risotto.

Firstly take the Chiodino mushrooms and fry them with some olive oil and garlic until slightly caramelised, then set aside.

Heat a large pan with 3 tablespoons of Olive oil and add your risotto rice and cook for about five minutes until the Olive oil is absorbed into the rice then add alittle good fresh chicken stock every couple of minutes or until stock is absorbed for time taken to cook the rice. I prefer to slightly under cook risotto as it tends to continue cooking in the pan.

Add the Chiodino mushrooms to the rice with a good handful of Parmesan cheese and some more olive oil.

Serve hot onto plate and then dust with more Parmesan cheese, olive oil and a few twists of coarse pepper. Finish with a little chopped parsley.