A Festival for Porcini Mushrooms: Italy you are WONDERFUL!

Welcome to the sagra!

Now that I am free to relax and reflect on the magnitude of delight and joy that follows a magnitude of trepidation, I will try my best to share with you those comedic and lovely moments that make me think, "yes, I could do this all again."

It all began with a wonderful Italian man, Davide, who constantly introduces me to new foods I can't wait to devour again. I mean, foods you love so much that you forget to breathe until your plate is empty and that you gobble up in that messy, dribble-down-the-chin type of manner.

He had recently discovered that nearby Rome there was a sagra* (italian meaning festival) for porcini mushrooms occurring and that we should certainly attend! I believed him entirely!

For those of you will little to no sagra experience, let me explain. A sagra usually focuses on one food item, such as sausage, truffles, polenta, strawberries etc. and you travel to quaint towns to enjoy their local and special way of incorporating that item into fantastic dishes. There are also artisans that sell beautiful cheeses, spices, fresh made breads and pastries, liqueurs, and crafts, etc. Then you go home with as much of that fresh ingredient as you can buy and/or load into the car and continue the sagra festivities in your own kitchen!

Since Davide had mentioned this sagra to me, we were floating along in dreams of fresh pasta, risotto, scaloppine, and pâté with those meaty and fragrant, wonderful porcini mushrooms. For two days we impatiently waited making sure the other wouldn't over do it in the days before and not be able to eat enough at the sagra. Finally Saturday arrived and we forced ourselves out of bed early. It was going to be a great day. Then we went to start the car....or attempted to at least.

The daring driver!

When the world around you is so full of treasures, sometimes it's very easy to forget that your packets aren't. However, when that lovely and unreliable, old jalopy sat there with a completely dead battery keeping us from our porcini dreams, my heart sank. But as this wasn't the first time we'd been in this situation and were lucky enough to be parked a the top of a small hill, Davide got into the car and with my weak little muscles I pushed from behind, running down the street mainly chasing after the car I was supposed to be "pushing," (and trying to ignore the questioning faces of those walking down the street, staring) while my talented companion popped the clutch and we were ready to start.

For those of you who haven't driven a standard transmission automobile with a dead battery at high speeds up and down winding hilltop streets on the outskirts of Rome on a busy saturday, I will say it's not something to put on your bucket list! I think given the option, I would have rather sky-dove to the sagra. At one point we were chugging our way up the cobble stone hillside of the town of Marino, having taken a wrong turn, and came to stall (fortunately) at the crest of the road. Unfortunately, it was in the center of the town square with lanes of traffic swerving around us and honking. Davide had to single-handedly pushed the car through traffic till there was a hill large enough and free of enough traffic for the car to roll down it and so he could pop the clutch again. I, most unhelpfully, sat in the passenger seat in the fetal position.

Through the entire trip we stalled four or five times, all fortunately in places where the strong-willed, porcini-motivated, Davide could work his magic and keep us in motion until we reached our destination. If those following behind us ever read this blog entry, our apologies to the two wedding processions and the angry women in the black car that we held up along the way!

We only just arrived and I already want everything!

After a strenuous journey that took twice as long as we thought, we had really worked up an appetite! Even though at several points along the way, I may have screamed, "dear god, I'm never leaving the house again!" I can say this was by far the best and most delicious sagra that I ever attended!

When we walked under the welcoming sign with happy, little mushrooms dancing around and inviting us onward, we could already smell something good was cooking. To my left was an entire tent dedicated to spices and spice mixtures that smelled glorious and tingled in my nose as they baked a little in the midday sun. To my right there was a cheese and sausage tent with free samples! I sampled twice just to be certain I understood the full flavor and textural differences between the grana padana and the hard goat cheese, I think it was obligatory anyway. This was a cross-cultural experience for me, so on the basis of further education, don't judge mean if I really sampled everything three times.

I was only two feet into the park and already wanted to take everything in eye-sight home. But the trick to sagra is that when there are lots of fresh meats, cheese, and produce in every direction, you sample as much as possible! Secondly, you must always keep in mind what dishes you are planning to cook in the next few days. It doesn't serve you to take home a little bit of everything only to watch it rot in the fridge. This type of decision making is quite demanding, and I was most fortunate to have a talented chef and motivated foodie with me.

Eating well and having fun!

First, you sample, then you eat! We went to the main tent and bought our lunch tickets and went to wait in the long line of happy, hungry people. Some of you might hate waiting in lines, but at a sagra a short line can be worse. You need time to see what everyone else is taking (which type of pasta or risotto, meat or cheese, etc) and which volunteer seems to be giving out the largest portion sizes! You also need enough time to change your mind at least twice. Fortunately for me, we had come in two, so Davide took the gnocchi with porcini, and I took a hand-made shape that I had never heard of before and since forgotten its name. Both were exception! With pasta shapes it depends on what experience you are looking for. Mine was a thick noodle that when cooked al dente had a nice chewy texture that squeaked a bit while I ate it. It's a wonderful sensation. Gnocchi is made with flour and mashed potato and formed into little nuggets, they are truly like gold to me! The sensation is completely different when you eat them. They melt more in your mouth and coat your tongue in their rich flavor. They also tend to be more filling.

We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly, stealing from one another's plate and neither was wanting for food! (That's why you sample from the vendors before you eat!) So we rested a bit and I went around making friends and being silly with my Fidoable masks and Fungo the Owl. The lovely and talented sagra volunteer, Serena Dell'Erba (who had kept everyone entertained with her dry sense of humor and help us understand our pasta selections) even took part in the masquerade.

Fungo the Owl enjoys the artisan vendors!

Wondering through the vendor stalls, I met a lovely man who made hand-crafted pine sculptures** of porcini mushrooms and woven baskets. We chatted about our individual crafts and he gave me some helpful advice about how to get involved with craft mercatini (open markets) around the area.

I did sample a few more cheese and several items from the truffle vendor*** before Davide and I came to our conclusion on what to rescue from the italian midday heat and take home to our quaint Roman kitchen. We chose white truffle oil, as well as sea salt infused with black truffle (oh dear me! It smelled like paradise! I had no idea what a truffle was before I moved to Italy and now I can't resist).

Then it was off to the fresh porcini vendor! There was also another type of mushroom that mixes well with porcini (called galletti) as well. Davide stared at the selection for sometime. Man versus porcini vendor. He just kept listing all the lovely dishes he could make with those mushrooms, and the quantity that we were thinking of buying kept growing and growing. In the end we had a basket full of about 3 kilos! If that isn't enough to make you jealous, chef Davide's porcini sauces and pâtés that he cooked up in our kitchen last night and this morning would set you over the edge! We have some for eating, some already devoured, and some ready to freeze for those winter nights we awake with dreams of summer's porcini.

Hands and bellies full!

Since our bellies and our hands were full and our pockets were empty, the wonderful goat cheese would have to wait for the next sagra. However, I'm not complaining, I'm very glad to live in a place where there will always be another sagra to attend. We left that afternoon very contented, singing a little Italian song and laughing.

Then we had to start the car....

In this entry:
*You can find out more about sagre in Italy here: www.sagreinitalia.it/
or we use this app "iSagre" but it costs $0.99.
The specific sagra that we attended was in Lariano: www.sagrafungoporcinolariano.it/

**If you want to find out more about the Pine Sculptures here is their facebook link:
www.facebook.com/pages/Pino-Sculture-in-Legno-ed-Opere-dingegno-Artigianali/538906396210818

***This is the website for the truffle vendor that was a nice man and I like his product. I think he also sells his products internationally and in the USA. www.ciprianitartufi.com