There's a whole collection of recipes in my book, The Tra Vigne Cookbook, including the first pasta dish I put on the menu, inspired by mushroom harvesting in the Napa Valley.
Autumn in the Napa Valley… grape leaves turn a deep orange, the air cools down, the rains start to come, and ten days after two inches of rain means it's time to go mushroom hunting. To the non-mushroom hunter, walking through the woods staring down at the ground might not seem very exciting. But once you get a whiff and discover that little patch of wild mushrooms, ah…
In the old days at Tra Vigne, we changed our menu depending on what mushrooms we collected ourselves. Now, we have people like Connie Green from Wine Forest Mushrooms who stops by during the show with big baskets of one of my favorites, porcini, or "little pigs."
I've found uses for all kinds and all sizes of wild mushrooms — some are better for grilling, some for pickling or roasting or sautéing. And when wild mushroom season is over, I used dried mushrooms. Watch my show — you'll get lots of ideas to add to your repertoire.
