Zuppa di funghi alla vermicelli

Submitted by Scientastic

Zuppa di funghi alla vermicelli

After the last ICSA, I wanted to do something clarified again. So consommé was a perfect choice. This involved a fuckton of mushrooms.

Ingredients

• 450g wild mushrooms
• 1.5L vegetable stock
• 180ml Madeira
• 1 a large onion, finely chopped
• 2 clove garlic, minced
• 2tsp fresh thyme leaves
• 60g porcini mushrooms
• 3 egg whites, beaten
• 6 vermicelli nests
• 10g butter

Method

Chop up all the ingredients. Start soaking the dried mushrooms in water. Sweat the onions and garlic in the butter for about 5m and add the mushrooms. Fry until they stop producing moisture.

Add the stock, Madeira, thyme and liquor from soaking the mushrooms.

Reduce down and cook for a while, then blend. I left overnight in the fridge to get as much flavour out of the mushrooms as possible. The next day, I sieved the soup, added egg whites and brought to the boil. The solid material rises into a raft at the top, which can be easily removed by straining through muslin. Sadly, I did this after my guests had already arrived, so don’t have any pictures.

Boil a vermicelli nest per person, place in a bowl, cover with the soup and top with rehydrated porcini mushrooms.

This went down very well, especially with the extra mushrooms I left for everyone to add themselves. I don’t know if having it referred to as “the poshest pot noodle ever” was meant as a compliment, but it was accompanied by some emphatic hand gestures and other people’s vehement agreement.