Years ago I was driving in the Langhe, I saw a vendor selling mushrooms on the side of the road and I stopped. I couldn’t help to buy the largest Porcini I had ever seen. It turned out that it was also one of my biggest mistakes.

So many times I am offered Funghi di Porcini, and they don’t even look the way a mushroom should look. When it comes to Porcini, I expect a corpulent (overweight & plump) firm white stalk and a broad bulbous dark brown cap, the underside white and never yellowish/green.

If you’re out walking in a European forest and come across a clump under a tree, you may well think you’ve stumbled into a feast but be careful, mushroom picking is for experts only!