We had a great surprise during harvest. One of our friends dropped by with a crate of freshly picked mushrooms from the Malepere (southwest of Carcassonne and northwest of Limoux)! So in the midst of harvest chaos we had time to make some delicious mushrooms.

People around here know what mushrooms to pick, but even if you have doubts you can bring them to the pharmacy. French pharmacists will tell you what mushrooms are edible and which aren’t. How adorable is that?! Once you’re confident in your mushrooms, then you chop them up and toss them in the frying pan for just a bit. Some olive oil and garlic. Voila! Hopefully these photos make up for the fact that I don’t have the time to write much.

Enjoy.

Alternate names for these mushrooms

Cepes, Ceps, surenys, Cepes de Bordeaux (we don’t like that one much around here), porcino (means piglet in Italian), king bolete, penny bun. In German, it’s a stone mushroom (Steinpilz) and my favorite might be the Austrian Herrenpilz which feels a bit like saying Mr Mushroom or Gentleman’s mushroom.

There were also a few cepes bronzés in the batch (sometimes called Tête de nègre).