What do you do with fermented chanterelles and foraged black trumpets?

What do you do with fermented chanterelles and foraged black trumpets? Make black trumpet and garlic mustard gnudi with fermented chanterelles, fried sage and a browned milk solid cream sauce, duh!

After the chanterelles were fermented enough I decided to play around with a couple ideas, this is my first experiment.

There is a lot of controversy of the origins of the gnudi and what it is supposed to be. In Italian it simply means nude or naked. Some people say it is a dumpling like pasta similar to the gnocchi and means naked gnocchi. This is untrue, to me the gnudi is a naked version of that ravioli, that’s why it is ricotta based and not potato. Another thing is the texture should be nothing like a dumpling or it would typically be unformed cavatelli, instead it should be the texture of the inside of a ravioli. Light, fluffy, airy, cloud like, cheesy, melt in your mouth, deliciousness. These are the words that come to my mouth when describing the proper gnudi. So I want to show you how I made mine and why theyre special.

First things first, gnudi is all about the filling, that’s it.. The sauce should be simple. Any garnishes should complement the gnudi with contrast or comparing flavors. But it should never overpower! Let me emphasize that again, the gnudi is all about the filling!

So with my filling I made my own ricotta by bringing organic half and half up to 160° then adding 1.5oz of white neutral vinegar, after the proteins coagulate I ran it through a chinois and cheesecloth. Squeezed out the moisture and was left with fresh ricotta or impastata. I then took some foraged black trumpet mushrooms (see foraging video) toasted them in the oven and made a powder. That powder, some fresh chopped garlic mustard leaves, parmesan reggiano, some fermented liquid from the chanterelles, salt, pepper and one egg were added to the ricotta.

Next step form it into a ball, if the filling I too loose just add a tea spoon of fresh bread crumbs

Roll the ball in semolina flour

Coat ball with water

Roll ball around in semolina again. This forms a really thin noodle on the outside of the filling, holding everything in place when you boil them.

Boil the finished gnudi until they float (2 mminutes) and your finished product should look like this. A round ball of filling coated by a very thin noodle. The traditional sauce in northern Italy in a brown butter sauce.

Thanks, hope you enjoy cooking your own!