Italian Baked Crepes with Ricotta and Porcini | Crespelle Gratinate con Ricotta e Porcini
Updated: Oct 24
Crespelle gratinate con ricotta e porcini is a baked first course from the Apennine kitchens of central Italy, where thin egg crepes replace fresh pasta sheets and the filling follows what the woods have given that week. In autumn the woods give porcini, and this is the version the whole year points towards. The crepes are cooked pale and flexible, filled with drained ricotta and deeply browned mushrooms, folded into triangles, veiled with a light bechamel and finished under strong heat until the exposed edges take colour.
What makes the filling difficult is not the flavour, which arrives on its own, but the water. Fresh mushrooms are roughly ninety percent water, and every drop that survives the pan reappears inside the crepe in the oven as a thin grey liquid that soaks the wrapper from within. The whole method is built around driving it off before the mushrooms meet the cheese, which is also why dried porcini carry the aroma here and fresh cremini carry the body.
Yield: 4 servings, 10 to 12 filled crespelle. Prep: 50 minutes. Cook: 45 minutes. Rest: 10 minutes. Total: about 1 hour 45 minutes. Difficulty: intermediate. Course: primo piatto. Season: autumn.
The Story
Crespelle are older in Italy than they look. Thin egg and flour pancakes appear in Renaissance court cookery as crespelli, and Bartolomeo Scappi, cook to two popes, describes a version in his Opera of 1570. They took root most firmly in Emilia Romagna, Tuscany and Umbria, where filling and gratinating them developed alongside lasagne and eventually borrowed the same fillings. They have always been a first course, never a dessert.
The porcini version belongs to the mountain villages rather than the cities. Boletus edulis grows through the chestnut and beech woods of the Apennines from Liguria down to Calabria, and the serious harvest comes in the weeks after the first heavy autumn rain. Whole towns in the Garfagnana and around Borgotaro organise their September around it, and Borgotaro holds the only IGP designation for porcini in Italy.
Ingredients
For the crespelle
All purpose flour, 1 cup (125 g)
Large eggs, 2
Whole milk, 1 1/4 cups (300 ml)
Unsalted butter, melted, 2 tbsp (28 g)
Fine sea salt, 1/4 tsp (1.5 g)
Unsalted butter for the pan, about 1 tbsp (14 g)
For the ricotta and porcini filling
Dried porcini mushrooms, 1 oz (28 g)
Warm water for soaking, 1 cup (240 ml)
Fresh cremini mushrooms, 12 oz (340 g)
Extra virgin olive oil, 2 tbsp (30 ml)
Unsalted butter, 1 tbsp (14 g)
Shallot, small, finely chopped, 1
Garlic clove, lightly crushed, 1
Dry white wine, 1/3 cup (80 ml)
Whole milk ricotta, well drained, 15 oz (425 g)
Parmigiano Reggiano, finely grated, 3/4 cup (75 g)
Large egg, 1
Fresh thyme leaves, 1 tsp (1 g)
Fine sea salt, about 3/4 tsp (4.5 g)
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
For the bechamel
Unsalted butter, 3 tbsp (42 g)
All purpose flour, 3 tbsp (24 g)
Whole milk, 2 1/2 cups (600 ml)
Fine sea salt, about 1/2 tsp (3 g)
Freshly grated nutmeg, 1 small pinch
For finishing
Parmigiano Reggiano, finely grated, 3/4 cup (75 g)
Unsalted butter, cut in small pieces, 1 tbsp (14 g)
Preparation
Soaking and filtering the dried porcini
Cover the dried porcini with 1 cup (240 ml) of warm water at roughly 120°F (50°C) and leave them 20 minutes. Never use boiling water: it sets the pieces tough and drives the aromatics off as steam. Lift the mushrooms out with your fingers rather than tipping the bowl through a strainer, because the grit has settled and tipping stirs it back through. Filter the liquid through a paper coffee filter and reserve about 1/3 cup (80 ml). Squeeze the pieces gently and chop them no finer than 1/4 inch (0.6 cm).
Making and resting the crespelle batter
Whisk the eggs with the salt, add about one third of the milk, then whisk in the flour a little at a time until perfectly smooth, which is far easier at this thick stage than later. Add the remaining milk and the melted butter. Rest the batter 20 to 30 minutes so the flour hydrates and the gluten relaxes. Unrested batter gives crepes that shrink in the pan and tear when you fold them.
Cooking the crespelle pale
Heat an 8 inch (20 cm) nonstick skillet over medium heat and brush it with the barest film of butter. Pour about 1/4 cup (60 ml) of batter into the centre and rotate the pan at once so it runs out thin and even. Cook 45 to 60 seconds on the first side, until the surface is matte and the underside just blond, then flip for 15 to 20 seconds only. Stack them flat. You want 10 to 12 crepes that are pale and supple, because they cook a second time in the oven.
Browning the fresh mushrooms properly
Clean the cremini with a damp cloth rather than washing them and slice them a generous 1/4 inch (0.6 cm) thick. Heat the oil and butter in your widest skillet over medium high heat, add the crushed garlic for 30 seconds, then add the mushrooms in a single shallow layer, working in two batches if they do not fit. Leave them alone. They release their water, the pan goes quiet and wet, and only when that water has boiled off does browning start. Add the shallot and thyme then, and cook 2 to 3 minutes more.
Concentrating the porcini aroma in the pan
Add the chopped rehydrated porcini and turn them through the fat for a minute. Pour in the white wine and let it reduce to nothing, scraping up whatever has stuck. Now add only 2 to 3 tablespoons (30 to 45 ml) of the filtered soaking liquid, not the whole amount, and cook until the pan is dry again. That is how the perfume gets into the mixture without the water coming with it. Season, remove the garlic, spread the mushrooms on a cold tray and cool them completely.
Draining the ricotta and binding the filling
Set the ricotta in a fine mesh strainer for at least 30 minutes, or overnight if it is a wet tub, and discard the whey. Work it with a spatula for thirty seconds only, until it loses its curdled look. Fold in the cold mushrooms, the Parmigiano Reggiano and the egg. The mushrooms must be cold: warm ones start to set the egg and pull whey out of the cheese at once. Chill 15 to 20 minutes, until the filling mounds on a spoon.
Cooking the bechamel loose
Melt the butter over medium low heat, add the flour and whisk continuously for about 90 seconds, keeping the roux blond. Pour in the milk gradually, whisking throughout, bring it to a bare simmer and cook 5 to 7 minutes until it just coats the back of a spoon and no more. Season with salt and one small grating of nutmeg. This bechamel is a veil, not a blanket, so stop it well before it thickens, and loosen it with warm milk if it stiffens while it waits.
Filling, folding and gratinating
Lay a crespella flat, spoon about 2 tablespoons (30 ml) of filling over one half with a teaspoon of bechamel and a dust of Parmigiano, leave 1/2 inch (1.5 cm) clear at the rim, then fold it in half and in half again into a triangle. Heat the oven to 375°F (190°C), butter a shallow dish and film the base with bechamel. Arrange the triangles overlapping like roof tiles, ribbon the rest of the bechamel over them leaving a third of the surface bare, scatter the Parmigiano and dot with butter. Bake 20 to 25 minutes until bubbling at the edges, then raise to 425°F (220°C) or use the broiler for 2 to 3 minutes. Rest 8 to 10 minutes.
Plating
Serve on warm plates at around 130°F (55°C), not hot ones. A very hot plate keeps the bechamel moving and the triangles slide; a cold plate chills the ricotta and mutes the porcini within a minute. Warm the plates in the oven as it comes down from the gratinating temperature and they will be right by the time the dish has rested.
Lift two or three crespelle per plate with a wide offset spatula, sliding it fully under each triangle so the gratinated crust stays attached rather than peeling away. Set them slightly overlapping, darkest surfaces up, folded points reading the same way. Spoon a tablespoon of the sauce from the dish beside them rather than on them, so it does not hide the crust, and add nothing green for decoration.
Professional Technique
The technique that decides this dish is browning the mushrooms in a pan wide enough to let them shed water as steam rather than stew in it. That water leaves whether you plan for it or not. In a crowded pan it leaves slowly, the surface sits at 212°F (100°C) and stays there, and the mushrooms simmer in their own liquid and finish pale and rubbery. In a wide pan the same water flashes off, the surface climbs past 300°F (150°C), and the Maillard browning that gives this filling its roasted depth finally begins.
The second is treating the porcini soaking liquid as a concentrate rather than a liquid. It is full of flavour and equally full of water and fine grit. Filter it, reduce your ambition to three tablespoons, and boil that small amount away against the mushrooms so the aromatic compounds deposit on them and nothing else stays behind.
Texture and Moisture Control
One test settles the question before you commit. Put a tablespoon of finished filling on a cold plate and leave it five minutes. If a ring of liquid forms around the base, the filling is too wet and no amount of oven time will correct it. In this version the cause is almost always the mushrooms rather than the cheese, because they carry far more water and it is easy to convince yourself a pan is dry when it is not. If the test fails, return the mixture to low heat for a few minutes, cool it and test again.
Ricotta contributes the slower problem. A tub can be up to seventy percent water, part of it loosely held whey that migrates out over hours rather than minutes. Thirty minutes in a fine mesh strainer takes the free liquid and an overnight drain takes the rest, firming the curd so it holds a shape. Never press it through to speed things up.
Professional Mise en Place
Four components that all want to be cool when they meet, so almost everything is done ahead and only the gratination is last minute.
Equipment and tools
8 inch (20 cm) nonstick skillet kept for crepes only
The widest skillet you own for the mushrooms, 12 inch (30 cm) or larger
Paper coffee filter or cheesecloth for the porcini liquid
Fine mesh strainer and a bowl for draining the ricotta
Shallow baking dish, wide offset spatula, small ladle for the bechamel
Prepared ahead
Ricotta draining in the strainer, overnight in the refrigerator
Crespelle cooked 1 day ahead, cooled flat, stacked and wrapped
Mushroom mixture cooked 1 day ahead, cooled and refrigerated covered
Bechamel made up to 2 days ahead with its surface covered directly
Filling assembled and chilled up to 6 hours before service
Service setup
Crespelle filled and folded in the dish, held refrigerated up to 24 hours
Bechamel warmed and slackened with milk to a thin coating consistency
Parmigiano grated and butter cut into pieces, both within reach
Oven at 375°F (190°C) with a second rack set high for gratinating
Plates warming as the oven comes down, rest timer set for 8 minutes
Chef Tips
Smell the dried porcini before you buy them and again before you soak them. Good ones are pale tan with dark edges and smell of forest floor and dried fruit. Old stock smells of dust and will give a filling with no aroma at all, and nothing you add later puts it back. Buy whole slices rather than cheap broken pieces, which are often a mix of species and not always porcini.
Keep the garlic on a short leash. One clove, crushed not chopped, in the pan for thirty seconds and then removed is all this filling wants. Garlic left in and softened sits on top of the porcini aroma and flattens it, and the whole reason for using two kinds of mushroom is to push that aroma forward.
If you have real fresh porcini in season, use 8 oz (225 g) in place of half the cremini and keep the dried ones anyway. Fresh porcini give texture and a sweet nutty note but surprisingly little of the concentrated perfume, which only develops with drying. The two do different jobs and are not substitutes.
Common Mistakes
Soaking the dried porcini in boiling water. It seizes the pieces, leaves them tough in the finished filling and drives the aromatics off as steam instead of into the liquid. Use warm water at about 120°F (50°C) for the full 20 minutes.
Pouring the soaking liquid through a strainer with the mushrooms. All the grit that settled patiently at the bottom of the bowl gets stirred back through on the way out. Lift the pieces by hand first, then filter the liquid separately through paper or cloth.
Adding all the porcini liquid to the filling. A full cup of liquid is a full cup of water going back into a mixture you just spent twenty minutes drying. Two to three tablespoons, reduced to nothing against the mushrooms, carries all the flavour you need.
Blanketing the crespelle completely with sauce. Covered surfaces steam and stay pale, and you lose the gratinated crust that is the reason for baking them. Leave a third of the surface bare on purpose, and keep the bechamel thin.
Serving straight from the oven. The filling is still fluid and runs out of the first triangle you cut. Eight to ten minutes of rest costs nothing in temperature and gives portions that lift out whole.
Wine Pairing
Alto Adige DOC Pinot Nero: The most precise match here. Pinot Nero grown high in the Adige valley keeps a cool fruit profile and very fine tannin, and develops exactly the undergrowth and dried mushroom note that runs alongside porcini rather than competing with it. Its acidity cuts the bechamel and the Parmigiano without stripping the ricotta of its sweetness. Serve at 58°F (14°C).
Nebbiolo d'Alba DOC: A Piedmontese red from the same hills where the porcini are gathered, and lighter on its feet than its Barolo relatives. The tannin is firm but the body stays medium, so it lifts the fat of the gratinated cheese instead of piling weight on it, and its tar, rose and dried herb aromatics meet the mushroom filling on common ground.
Etna Rosso DOC: Nerello Mascalese from the volcanic slopes brings a sharp mineral edge and red fruit with almost no sweetness, which is useful against a rich baked dish that carries no acidity of its own. The smoky, ashy quality of these wines echoes the browned edges of the crespelle. Choose a younger bottling and avoid heavily oaked examples.
Collio Friulano DOC: For anyone who wants white with this dish, Friulano is the one that works. It has more weight and texture than most Italian whites, enough to stand under the bechamel, and finishes on a bitter almond note that picks up the toasted Parmigiano crust. Its waxy herbal middle sits comfortably beside thyme and shallot. Serve at 50°F (10°C).
Storage & Reheating
Assembled but unbaked is the best way to hold this dish. Filled, folded and sauced, the crespelle keep covered in the refrigerator for 24 hours and bake straight from cold with about 8 minutes added. Do not hold them longer, because the wrappers keep absorbing liquid and go to paste where they touch the sauce.
Baked portions hold 3 days in the refrigerator in a sealed container. Reheat at 325°F (165°C) under foil for 12 minutes, then uncovered for 5 to 8 to bring the gratin back. The microwave softens the crust and turns the crepe rubbery, so treat it as a last resort.
Nutrition
Per serving, based on 4 servings of about 3 crespelle each:
Calories: 625 kcal
Total Fat: 39 g
Saturated Fat: 21 g
Trans Fat: 0.8 g
Unsaturated Fat: 16 g
Cholesterol: 195 mg
Sodium: 870 mg
Total Carbohydrates: 43 g
Fiber: 3 g
Total Sugars: 12 g
Added Sugars: 0 g
Protein: 29 g
Lactose: 9 g
Principal micronutrients: calcium, phosphorus, riboflavin, niacin, selenium, copper, vitamin D from the dried porcini, vitamin A
These are estimates. They shift with the fat content of the ricotta, how much whey drains away, how heavily the Parmigiano is applied and how many crespelle each portion holds.
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