Portobellos for pasta

One of our best memories of Italy is stopping on a Tuscan roadside after scrambling over the Etruscan ruins at Veii or somewhere, and buying fresh porcini mushrooms, like earth-covered jewels, from the guy who had probably just hunted them up in the woods. We gave him tens of thousands of lire (it was back in a reasonable time, before the Euro, so okay, it was maybe five or ten bucks) and he handed out a brown paper bag from the back of his truck. It was like a drug buy in the States, but in Italy there are lots of illicit food transactions like this (white truffles are probably the highest-priced one).

This is one of the ways we would treat fresh porcini if we had them, a variation on the classic funghi trifolati (there's that truffle again). In the States, we use portobello mushrooms, which are nowhere near as flavorful, but have similar texture. Start some spiral pasta boiling; rotelle or cellentani are good. Chop three or four mushroom caps into half-inch dice; sauté in a large pan with lots of extra-virgin olive oil, adding minced garlic and a bountiful sprinkling of fresh thyme leaves, chopped rosemary and parsley. When the mushrooms are dark and flavorful and most of their juice has boiled off, keep them warm, season with salt and pepper, and maybe add an extra shot of your best, most fruity, extra-virgin olive oil (don't skimp; here oil acts as a sauce would, melding and conveying all the flavors). Drain the pasta and toss it in the pan with the mushrooms. Serve it on warm plates, with no cheese or anything else. Eat Italy.