How Fresh Porcini Leads to Ginger Hazelnut Oil

By now you may know that I spent a week cooking with a chef in Tuscany in his restaurant kitchen.  I'll slowly start to integrate what I've learned and how I've applied it to my own cooking now that I'm back in my kitchen.

I spent a week cooking with Chef Claudio Piantini in his restaurant Torre Guelfa in the little town of Figline Valdarno, about twenty minutes south of Florence.

As you'll be reading here, I've learned a lot from Chef Claudio - including composure, patience, and dedication.  But I'm sure I'll get into the details later.

For now, I'll tell you about watching Claudio make pasta at his restaurant.  It was porcini mushroom season while I was in Tuscany, and very similar to the way I cook, Claudio gets entranced in the seasonal abundance that is all around him.   He was pretty much obsessed with porcini while I was there, which I was obviously thrilled to experience.   I tasted and cooked the most beautiful fresh porcini I have ever seen.  I buy fresh porcini when I can, but I've never had it in the condition I experienced in Tuscany during porcini season.  I've included a picture of the porcini in their raw beauty from Torre Guelfa restaurant.

Claudio roasted a whole porcini cap that crowned a fillet of the famous Tuscan Chianina steak. He sliced raw porcini and served them with shavings of pecorino, the cheese of Tuscany (I went to see a pecorino producer, much more on that sometime down the road). Claudio made an intense porcini soup that was also spectacular.  But my favorite dish was the simple porcini tagliatelle that he made virtually ever night while I was at the restaurant.  I can make it in my sleep at this point. 

When he made the porcini pasta, he flavored the olive oil with whole cloves of garlic, then removed the garlic from the oil when just colored.  He'd then add the porcinis and cook them in the oil until soft.  In went the pasta to finish cooking in the garlic infused oil and chopped porcini, and the dish was done.   No herbs.  No cheese.  I asked Claudio why no herbs.  "Porcini" was his answer, with a big, passionate smile.  I asked why no pecorino? "Porcini" he smiled again.  I tasted and he was right.  Porcini.  Fresh and perfect for only a few months of the year, not to be compromised with competing flavors.  That was the beauty of the dish and the perfect example of his cooking style.   He would tell me later that night - "Not taste cheese.  Not  taste herbs. I want to taste porcini." 

I was recently looking to garnish a dish I made that had nothing to do with the trip to Tuscany.  I was doing what I love most on Sundays - experimenting and creating dishes in my kitchen that I've never made before.  I needed a flavored oil, light yet bold in taste to garnish a salad.  I thought of Claudio and the whole garlic simmering in olive oil, infusing its flavor into the oil but then removed to avoid competing with the main flavors of a dish.

I thought about infusing fresh ginger into oil, as I had some on hand.   I would have liked a neutral oil, like a safflower or peanut oil, but I only had a hazelnut oil on hand.  I chopped plenty of ginger and simmered it under a very low heat with the hazelnut oil until it turned just brown.   I removed the ginger and let the oil cool.   The ginger hazelnut oil had a remarkable, balanced flavor that I recommend trying for salads or finishing oils for summer dishes.

Claudio would probably stare at this post in confusion. Have I missed the whole point?  No, I have not missed the point about keeping flavors simple.  In fact, I will post many of the dishes I learned with him that I have since made on my own, don't you worry.  But what can I say, I'm generally known as someone who marches to the beat of his own drummer.  I watch.  I learn.  Then I'm inspired to do my own thing. 

So for now, hazelnut ginger oil is on the menu. 

Comments

[ann]

oh, that's lovely Joe... it's so refreshing to get away and look at food in a completely different way... and then to come back, moon about for a few days and then learn to incorporate the new lessons... good on you... i think Claudio would be proud!

[joe]

thanks anne. we'll see if claudio will be proud of me when i remake some of his sauces, pastas, etc...i know he would not be cool with the blueberry pasta that you inspired me to make...i'll have a post on that in a few days...