Italian Porcini Mushroom Lasagne | Lasagne Rivisitate ai Funghi Porcini
Porcini are the one mushroom that can carry a baked pasta on their own, and this lasagne is built to prove it. There is no ragu underneath, no tomato anywhere, no second vegetable competing for attention. What holds the sheets together is a besciamella infused with the soaking water of dried porcini, and what fills them is a dry, deeply browned duxelles of fresh caps and stems.
The revisit is in the architecture. It bakes in individual dishes rather than one large tray, so every portion has four crisp edges and a clean vertical section instead of a slumped square cut from the middle. Three thin sheets of hand rolled egg pasta are enough, and the porcini slices on top are seared separately in the last five minutes.
Everything else is discipline about water. Fresh porcini are more than eighty percent water, besciamella is mostly milk, and pasta sheets release liquid as they bake. The method below is arranged so the water leaves in the pan, before assembly, not in the dish afterwards.
Yield: 6 individual servings. Prep: 1 hour. Cook: 45 minutes. Rest: 15 minutes. Total: about 2 hours. Difficulty: advanced. Course: primo. Region: northern Apennines and the Po valley.
The Story
Porcini cannot be farmed. Boletus edulis lives in a mycorrhizal partnership with the roots of beech, chestnut, oak and spruce, and nobody has made that relationship work in a shed. Every porcino sold in Italy was found by somebody walking in a wood, which is why the price swings with the weather and why the season is talked about the way other places talk about a harvest.
The commercial heart of that trade sits in the Taro valley, in the Parma Apennines, where the Fungo di Borgotaro became the first mushroom in Europe to receive protected geographical status in 1996. The designation covers four species of boletus gathered in a defined stretch of chestnut and beech woodland. Collection there was regulated long before European law arrived, through permits, daily weight limits and closed days.
Lasagne met the mushroom in those same hills. The oldest layered pasta of northern Italy was white, made of sheets, cheese and butter, with no tomato and no meat sauce, and the Apennine autumn version was filled with whatever the woods had given. Drying was the other half of the tradition: sliced caps strung on thread near the hearth held the season through winter, and the savoury liquid left after soaking them was never thrown away.
Ingredients
For the egg pasta sheets
Italian 00 flour, 2 1/3 cups (300 g)
Semola rimacinata, 1/3 cup (50 g)
Eggs, large, 3
Egg yolk, 1
Fine sea salt, 1/2 tsp (3 g)
For the porcini duxelles
Fresh porcini, firm and dry, 1 lb 10 oz (750 g)
Dried porcini, 1 oz (28 g)
Warm water for soaking, 1 1/2 cups (360 ml)
Shallot, finely chopped, 1 large
Garlic clove, whole, 1
Unsalted butter, 2 tbsp (28 g)
Extra virgin olive oil, 2 tbsp (30 ml)
Dry white wine, 1/4 cup (60 ml)
Fresh thyme leaves, 1 tsp (1 g)
Flat leaf parsley, chopped, 2 tbsp (6 g)
Fine sea salt, 1 tsp (6 g)
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
For the porcini besciamella
Whole milk, 3 cups (720 ml)
Strained porcini soaking liquid, 1/2 cup (120 ml)
Unsalted butter, 5 tbsp (70 g)
Italian 00 flour, 1/3 cup (45 g)
Bay leaf, 1
Freshly grated nutmeg, 1/8 tsp
Parmigiano Reggiano, grated, 1/2 cup (45 g)
Fine sea salt, 1 tsp (6 g)
For assembly and finishing
Parmigiano Reggiano, grated, 1 cup (90 g)
Unsalted butter for the dishes, 1 tbsp (14 g)
Reserved porcini caps, 6 slices about 1/4 inch (6 mm) thick
Extra virgin olive oil, 1 tbsp (15 ml)
Thyme sprigs, 6 small
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Preparation
Soaking the dried porcini and saving the liquid
Cover the dried porcini with warm water, not boiling, for 30 minutes. Lift them out with your fingers rather than pouring, so the grit stays on the bottom, squeeze them over the bowl and chop them finely. Strain the liquid through a fine mesh sieve lined with a damp paper filter. Keep 1/2 cup (120 ml) for the besciamella and put the rest into the duxelles pan.
Making and rolling the egg pasta
Mound the 00 flour and the semola, make a well, add the eggs, the yolk and the salt, and work the dough smooth and firm, about 8 minutes. Wrap and rest it 30 minutes. Roll in stages to the second thinnest setting, thin enough to read large print through but not transparent. Cut the sheets to the footprint of your dishes plus a finger of overlap.
Blanching and cooling the sheets
Bring a wide pan of water to a rolling boil and salt it at about 1 tablespoon per 4 quarts, less than for a dressed pasta, since the besciamella and the Parmigiano are already salted. Blanch the sheets two at a time for 45 seconds, until flexible and pale, then lift them into iced water. Lay them flat on a towel in a single layer and pat them dry.
Cleaning and cutting the fresh porcini
Never wash porcini under the tap. Scrape the stems, brush the caps and wipe them with a barely damp cloth. Set aside six good slices from the firmest caps for the garnish. Cut the rest into a small dice, stems included, since the stem carries more flavour and needs only a little longer in the pan.
Browning the duxelles until the pan goes quiet
Heat the oil and butter in your widest saute pan over high heat with the whole garlic clove, add the diced porcini and do not touch them for two minutes. Season with half the salt only once they have coloured, because salt drawn out early makes them stew. Keep the heat high and listen: the loud bubbling of water becomes the quiet sizzle of fat. That takes 10 to 14 minutes.
Deglazing and finishing the filling
Add the shallot, the chopped rehydrated porcini, the wine and about 1/2 cup (120 ml) of the remaining soaking liquid, and reduce until the pan is almost dry. Discard the garlic. Off the heat stir in the thyme, the parsley, the rest of the salt and a grind of pepper. Spread the filling on a tray to cool, since a hot filling thins the besciamella on contact.
Infusing the milk and cooking the besciamella
Warm the milk with the bay leaf to just under a simmer for 10 minutes. Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan, whisk in the flour and cook the roux 2 minutes without letting it colour. Add the hot milk in three additions, whisking hard, then the reserved porcini liquid, and cook 8 minutes at a bare simmer until it coats a spoon. Off the heat add the nutmeg, the salt and the Parmigiano.
Layering the individual dishes
Butter six shallow ovenproof dishes and heat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Put two spoonfuls of besciamella on each base, then a sheet trimmed to fit, a thin layer of duxelles, more besciamella and a dusting of Parmigiano. Repeat for three sheets, finishing with besciamella and a heavier layer of cheese. Keep the finished height under 1 1/2 inches (4 cm), or the centre never sets while the edges overcook.
Baking, searing the caps and resting
Bake 25 to 30 minutes, until the surface is blistered and gold and the besciamella trembles at the edges. In the last five minutes sear the reserved slices in the tablespoon of oil, about 90 seconds a side, seasoning them after they colour. Rest the dishes 15 minutes: the starch and the cheese need that time to set, and a lasagne cut straight from the oven runs across the plate.
Plating
Serve in the dish it baked in, on a warm underplate, or lift the portion out with an offset spatula onto a plate warmed to around 140°F (60°C). Run a thin knife around the edge first and take the whole block in one movement, because hesitating is what breaks it.
Lay one seared porcini slice slightly off centre, add a small thyme sprig and grind black pepper coarsely at the last moment. Nothing else belongs up there: no cream, no truffle oil, no scattered parsley. The Parmigiano crust took twenty five minutes to build and it should be visible. A few drops of good olive oil around the edge of the plate are the only addition worth making.
Professional Technique
The controlling technique is the two stage treatment of one ingredient. Porcini cooked to a dry duxelles give depth but lose definition, while porcini seared in slices give texture and a roasted edge but no background. Using both, from the same batch, lets part of the mushroom disappear into the structure and part stay recognisably itself on top. The dried porcini are a third stage, adding a glutamate concentration fresh caps cannot reach.
The besciamella is built for a mushroom, not copied from a meat lasagne. A classic version runs around 60 grams of flour to a litre of milk, firm enough to hold heavy ragu layers. Here the roux is lighter and part of the liquid is porcini stock rather than milk, so the sauce stays pourable and sets to a soft custard rather than a slab. It must cook long enough to lose any raw flour taste, since nothing strong is there to hide it.
Baking in individual dishes changes the heat transfer. A large tray heats from the outside in, so the perimeter is overdone by the time the centre arrives, and the portion cut from the middle has no crust at all. Six small dishes reach temperature in roughly half the time, each with a browned surface on four sides.
Texture and Moisture Control
Three sources of water are controlled at three different moments. The fresh porcini lose theirs in the saute pan, over high heat, until the sound in the pan changes. The blanched sheets lose theirs on a towel, laid singly rather than stacked, because sheets stuck together hold a film of water that goes straight into the sauce. The besciamella keeps its water on purpose, since it is the only thing that will hydrate the pasta.
The pasta is the moisture regulator. Sheets blanched for 45 seconds are partly cooked and still thirsty, and they finish in the oven by drawing liquid from the sauce around them. That is why the besciamella is made looser than it looks right. If the assembled dish looks slightly wet going in, it is correct.
The rest at the end is a texture step, not a courtesy. Between 190°F (88°C) and about 140°F (60°C) the starch retrogrades and the cheese proteins firm, and the layers hold a clean edge under a spoon. Serve at around 150°F (65°C), so the mushroom aroma reads instead of burning off.
Professional Mise en Place
Almost everything here can be finished before service, in the sequence below.
Equipment and tools
Pasta machine, bench scraper and a long rolling pin for the final pass
The widest saute pan you own, wide enough that the porcini sit in one layer
Heavy saucepan and a balloon whisk for the besciamella
Six shallow ovenproof dishes of about 1 1/2 cups (360 ml) each
Fine mesh sieve and a paper filter for the soaking liquid
Offset spatula, soft brush, digital thermometer
Prepared ahead
Pasta dough, up to 1 day ahead, wrapped and refrigerated
Duxelles, up to 2 days ahead, refrigerated in a sealed container
Besciamella, up to 1 day ahead, film pressed on the surface
Soaking liquid strained and divided, up to 3 days ahead
Sheets blanched on towels, up to 4 hours ahead, covered but never stacked
Service setup
Dishes assembled cold, brought to room temperature 20 minutes before baking
Oven steady at 375°F (190°C), tray on the shelf below to catch drips
Reserved slices dry on a rack, pan hot for the last five minutes
Plates warm, thyme and pepper mill within reach
A timer set for the 15 minute rest, counted as cooking time
Chef Tips
Buy porcini that feel heavy and squeak slightly when you press the cap. Softness, dark patches or a spongy yellow green underside mean the mushroom is past its best. If the tubes underneath have gone olive and wet, cut them off and use the rest for the duxelles, never for the seared slices.
Taste the soaking liquid before committing it to the besciamella. A cheap bag of thin pale slices gives a liquid that is merely brown, while good dark pieces give something close to meat stock. If yours tastes weak, reduce it by half and cut the milk by the same volume.
If fresh porcini are unavailable, do not replace the whole quantity with button mushrooms. Use chestnut mushrooms with a doubled amount of dried porcini, brown them harder than feels necessary, and accept that the seared garnish is no longer possible.
Freeze the lasagne before baking, never after. Assembled dishes wrapped tightly and frozen up to a month go straight into a 350°F (175°C) oven from frozen for about 50 minutes. A baked and reheated lasagne always loses some of the crust.
Common Mistakes
Washing the porcini under running water. The cap is absorbent and takes on water within seconds, which then has to be driven off in the pan at the cost of colour. Brush, scrape and wipe with a barely damp cloth instead.
Salting the mushrooms at the start of the saute. Salt pulls water out immediately, the pan temperature drops, and the porcini poach in their own liquid instead of browning. Season once the pieces have taken colour.
Stacking the blanched sheets. Sheets laid on each other weld together and trap water between them, so they tear during assembly and release that water into the sauce in the oven.
Making the besciamella as thick as for a meat lasagne. With only mushrooms between the layers there is no meat juice to loosen the sauce, and three sheets will absorb liquid for half an hour. A besciamella that looks correct in the pan bakes into paste.
Building too many layers. A tall portion insulates its own centre, so the middle is barely warm when the top is already dark. Three sheets and a height of about 1 1/2 inches (4 cm) is the limit.
Cutting or serving straight from the oven. The layers are still fluid above about 175°F (80°C) and the portion collapses on the plate. Fifteen minutes of rest turns the same dish into something that holds a clean edge.
Wine Pairing
Ghemme DOCG: Nebbiolo from the glacial moraine soils east of the Sesia, grown in the same hills where these mushrooms are found. Its high acidity and fine drying tannin cut through the butter and the besciamella, while the dried rose, tar and undergrowth notes sit alongside the porcini rather than across from them.
Soave Superiore DOCG: Garganega from the volcanic hills above Verona gives a waxy, almost chalky mid palate with ripe yellow apple and a bitter almond finish, and that weight is what a milk based sauce needs. The saline length keeps the palate moving through a dish that is otherwise very soft.
Alto Adige Santa Maddalena DOC: Schiava from the porphyry slopes above Bolzano, pale and low in tannin, with sour cherry fruit and a violet note that never overwhelms a vegetable dish. Serve it at 57°F (14°C), cooler than a normal red, so it refreshes without putting structure against a filling that has none.
Teroldego Rotaliano DOC: Grown on the gravel plain of the Campo Rotaliano in Trentino, darker and firmer than the Schiava above, with bramble fruit and a savoury bitter twist. That bitterness answers the roasted edge of the seared caps and the browned Parmigiano crust.
Ribolla Gialla Collio DOC: Friulian Ribolla has a citrus peel texture that scrubs dairy fat off the palate and a delicate apple blossom aroma that leaves the mushroom alone. Choose a version made without skin contact, since a long macerated bottling brings tannin the dish does not need.
Storage & Reheating
Baked portions keep refrigerated in their dishes, covered with film once cold, for up to 3 days. Never cover a lasagne while it is still warm, because the steam condenses and drips back onto the crust. The duxelles keeps separately for 2 days and the besciamella for 1.
Reheat a baked portion covered with foil at 325°F (165°C) for 20 to 25 minutes, then uncover for the last 5 minutes. A spoonful of hot milk poured around the edge first replaces what the original bake took out.
For the freezer, assemble the dishes and freeze them raw, wrapped tightly, up to 1 month, then bake from frozen at 350°F (175°C) for about 50 minutes, covered for the first 30. Never freeze the besciamella alone, since it separates and whisking will not bring it back.
Nutrition
Per serving, based on 6 individual portions:
Calories: 620 kcal
Total Fat: 33 g
Saturated Fat: 18 g
Trans Fat: 0.6 g
Unsaturated Fat: 13 g
Cholesterol: 185 mg
Sodium: 780 mg
Total Carbohydrates: 54 g
Fiber: 4 g
Total Sugars: 8 g
Added Sugars: 0 g
Protein: 26 g
Lactose: 6 g
Principal micronutrients: calcium, phosphorus, selenium, copper, potassium, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin D
These figures are estimates. They vary with the fat of the milk, how heavily the dishes are buttered and how much Parmigiano goes on the surface, and the blanching salt is largely discarded with the water.
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