Pigging out on Porcini – Eating out in Rome

In pursuit of Funghi Porcini:

On our first night in Rome, we race off to our favourite restaurant on Campo dei Fiori.  After a few weeks on the road, a fix of good Italian food is much needed and at La Carbonara, we know that we’ll have a good meal.

I eagerly ask the waiter if they have funghi porcini and he points to the next table saying that the last serve has just gone to the people at that table. What a tragedy!  I couldn’t hide my disappointment – there didn’t even have a few slivers of it to put in my pasta.  The waiter quickly reassures me that we haven’t missed the porcini season.  It’s just that it’s Sunday, the markets are closed and they weren’t able to get more supplies.  He promises that when we return from our Cinque Terre trip, they’ll still have porcini.

So here I am again tonight on my mission to dine on this King of Mushrooms! For my primi piati I order linguine ai porcini and for my secondi piati I’m having porcini arrosto.  Tony tells me that it’s silly to  have porcini in both courses as there’s no contrast in flavours, but my waiter friend says that I’m not breaking any gastronomical codes and that it’s okay to have whatever I like.

I tuck into my porcini pasta, managing to splatter oil all over my blouse. The food is absolutely delicious and the linguine ai porcini takes care of my addictions on two fronts – my love of pasta as well as love of porcini.    The  porcini arrosto arrives and the heavenly aroma hits our brains.  On biting into the delectable mushrooms, the roasted flavours hit your palette first and it then gives way to an almost ‘creamy’ texture on the inside. The fresh chargrilled porcini that we’ve been dreaming off since last season did not disappoint.

Was I crazy to have two porcini dishes, well actually no.  The porcini cooked in the pasta has a different flavour to the chargrilled porcini and besides it’s a long wait till the next porcini season.

What do you think? Please comment below to tell me.

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1. A Passion for Porcini
2. Dar Filettaro a Santa Barbara – Eating out in Rome