Porcini Mushrooms are an autumn essential in the Italian kitchen. As soon as you start prepping the ingredients for this recipe, your kitchen will immediately be filled with the impressively powerful smell of the best mushrooms in the world: Porcini from Borgotaro in Emilia Romagna, a hidden valley about 2 hours west of Bologna.
These Borgotaro Porcini Mushrooms have a unique way of expressing a concentrated umami flavor. When cooking with them, the secret to extracting their intense aroma is to soak them in warm water for 20 minutes and then use that water in your recipe.
In Italian, Orzo means barley. It’s an earthy and highly digestible grain. Our Orzo is from the Bio Alberti farm in Umbria. We love to use Orzo in a risotto style recipe, orzotto, if you will. Using Orzo, instead of rice, adds a nutty note to the creamy recipe while still keeping its firm bite.
