Fettuccine with saffron, oak mushrooms and provolone del monaco cheese

Autumn has just begun that the temperature has already dropped, the first rains have arrived and so the mushrooms have come out in the woods. We can be sure that those sold on the sides of the roads are all picked in Italy and this allows us to find truly fresh mushrooms and to select the scent of the woods that we desire for our recipes.

Today we selected the oak mushrooms that we will use to season some fettuccine flavored with saffron and the famous “Provolone del Monaco DOP” (literally - cheese of the monk), a semi-hard and aged cheese that is produced on the Lattari Mountains in the Sorrento Peninsula. The milk, then, is special as it comes for 20% from Agerolese cows, a breed originating from the province of Naples between Agerola and Gragnano. It is true that provolone resembles caciocavallo, which comes from the areas of the central-southern Apennines, but connoisseurs will be able to recognize the difference, and I chose it for this recipe. Among other things, provolone del monaco is the famous cheese used in the pasta and potatoes of the Neapolitan tradition.

It seems that its name derives from the shepherds who brought the cheese to the port of Naples and who were dressed in a sackcloth cloak that resembled that of the monks.

Recipe for fettuccine with saffron, oak mushrooms and provolone del monaco

Let's start by preparing the fresh pasta, in the flour fountain in addition to the eggs we will put some saffron dissolved in a little warm water leaving a little that we will instead put in the mushrooms.

Once the dough has been prepared, make a ball of smooth and homogeneous dough and let it rest covered, in the meantime prepare the mushrooms.

We clean the mushrooms with a damp cloth removing the stem that we will not use because it is hard and fibrous, we cut them into thin slices, take garlic, onion and fresh chili pepper, chop them finely and put them in a pan with a drizzle of oil.

Let it brown adding hot water to avoid burning the chopped ingredients, then add the mushrooms, salt and cook shortly after, pour in the saffron that we had previously left. Let's finish cooking, helping ourselves, if necessary, with hot water.

Let's take the pasta that will be ready after about 20 minutes and roll it out making fettuccine. Let's cook the fettuccine in plenty of salted water and finish cooking in the pan with the mushrooms. Stir with the heat off with butter and provolone del monaco and, if necessary, help ourselves with the cooking water. Plate and serve very hot.

In the glass a modern Chianti the "Biskero" a wine 85% Sangiovese grapes and the rest Canaiolo, Mammolo and Petit Verdot. Aged 60% in steel and 40% in 300-liter barrels of American oak.