This bright and sunny morning I am again in the kitchen here at Bellaugello Gay Guest House waiting on the last of the guests coming down for breakfast and taking the time to catch up with friends on Facebook and surfin the web.
Last night I decided to find the cables for my television, missing since I purloined them for a suite many months ago – they were in a box tucked in the back of the hay shed, so with television connected I made myself a dish of pasta with funghi porcini and truffle sauce and sat and pigged my way through three films in sucession, decadence!
Funghi porcini or wild mushrooms (boletus edulus) are now popping up all over the valley and early morning tranquility is disturbed by the sound of cars and stooped figures stalking the woods in search of these beauties. We have had a bit of rain and warm sunshine here, ideal growing conditions for these delectable mushrooms that are great eaten on their own or with pasta or as an accompanyment to a mouthwatering beefsteak. I remember as a child going with my parents to gather them and then my father stringing them up on long lines to slowly dry over the boiler, and them my mother making the most delicious fragrant aromatic soups, I shall keep the family tradition going.
Friday evening saw me invited out for supper at a local restaurant. It turned out to be a boys night out, and one preoccupied with relationship problems, it seems that even liberal portions of funghi porcini arrosto could not resolve crumbling relationships, we seem to be becoming a bachelor club here in Valdichiascio, not good, hopefully things will soon change.