So its Mushroom season and I stumble across a new piece of woodland that is densely populated with a member of the Bolete family – the Bay Bolete. The Bay Bolete is a good looking mushroom, like all of the Bolete family! They also seem to fruit together and in good numbers. This allows the mushroom hunter to be pick only the best specimens perfect for the fussy forager cook! Picking just the perfect mushrooms my mind was already spinning with ideas and ways to cook this very edible mushroom, in the end I came up with this Spaghetti Tetrazzini or Chicken and Bay Bolete pasta bake!
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Spaghetti Tetrazzini with Bay Bolete Recipe
Ingredients:
2 Handfuls of Fresh Bay Bolete Mushrooms (medium sized)
4 Free range Chicken Thighs
1 White Onion
Large glass of White Wine
Packet of Dried Spaghetti
500ml Low fat Crème Fraiche
250g Parmesan (Grated)
Olive Oil
Maldon Salt
Black Pepper
From the Garden:
Small bunch of Parsley
Small bunch of Basil
Your going to need a really big and deep frying pan or a large saucepan and a saucepan to cook the Spaghetti in (get it boiling with plenty of water and a good punch of salt).
Firstly, slice your Bolete mushrooms into lengthwise slices just under 1/2 cm thick. Put some Olive Oil in your frying pan and fry the slices quickly until they begin to take colour then set aside.
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Take your pieces of chicken and cut into long strips about a 1cm thick. Season and then fry off until cooked and again have taken on a little colour, again when done set aside on a warm plate until ready.
Add the Spaghetti to the boiling water and cook until al dente (do not over cook, you want the Spaghetti to finish cooking when baking).
Warm the oven to 225 degrees
Peel and slice your Onion and then add it to the now empty frying pan, add a pinch of salt and some Olive Oil and then sweat the onion down until sweet (try not to get any colour on the onions). When the onion is translucent and sweet add the Chicken pieces and mushrooms to the pan (and any juice that may have come from the mushrooms and Chicken), turn the heat right up and add the glass of wine, reduce the sauce by half.
Now, turn off the heat and add the chopped herbs, half of the Parmesan and the Crème Fraiche and check the seasoning, correcting if necessary.
Drain your 'al Dente pasta' and add it to the pan of Mushroom’y, Chicken and sauce. Stir in. A quick note if the sauce was looking a little to thick (you want it to be thin enough to coat the Spaghetti but not so thin that it doesn’t cling to the pasta) use some of the pasta cooking water to loosen it.
Pour the mix into a suitably sized baking dish and leaves just a little room at the top and then distribute the remaining Parmesan over the top evenly. Finish the top with a little Olive Oil and then bake until the top goes brown and crispy, about 15 minutes.
When the dish is done serve huge ladles of the mix with fresh steamed Broccoli that itself has been finished with a little more Olive Oil and some toasted Almond flakes.
Simple to cook, simply lovely.
Remember never to eat any mushroom that hasn't been 100% positively identified as edible. Take advice. Ingesting the wrong Wild mushrooms can be fatal.
Got a great haul of Boletes? Check out our Mushroom Dehydrators here.