Tagliatelle ai Funghi Porcini

Fresh tagliatelle with porcini, shiitake and brown mushrooms in a creamy Parmesan sauce with garlic, butter and white wine.  Sometimes the best souvenirs are not magnets or postcards. Sometimes they are bags of mushrooms bought from a Swiss supermarket that end up becoming one of the most satisfying pasta dishes you’ve ever made. Wide ribbons of fresh pasta, earthy mushrooms, and a silky sauce prove that simple ingredients often make the best meals.

One of our favourite things to do when travelling is visit supermarkets. Some people collect souvenirs, visit museums, or spend hours shopping for luxury goods. We head straight to the local supermarkets and markets. For us, they are attractions in their own right.

During our last trip to Switzerland, one ingredient immediately caught my attention: dried porcini mushrooms.

Anyone who regularly cooks with porcini mushrooms in New Zealand knows they are not cheap. A small 30-gram packet can easily cost around NZ$15.00. Walking through a Denner supermarket and finding 150 grams for CHF 15.95 was enough to stop me in my tracks. That works out to roughly NZ$35.00 for five times the quantity I would normally buy at home.

There was no debate. Three bags immediately found their way into our shopping basket.

Looking back, it was probably one of the best food purchases of the trip.

Why I Love Dried Porcini

I have always loved mushrooms in every form imaginable. Fresh, dried, grilled, braised, stir-fried, stuffed, or blended into sauces, mushrooms rarely disappoint me.

Dried porcini, however, occupy a special place in the mushroom world.

Once rehydrated, they develop a wonderfully chewy texture and an intensely earthy aroma that fresh mushrooms simply cannot replicate. More importantly, the soaking liquid becomes liquid gold. Every drop contains concentrated mushroom flavour that can transform sauces, soups, risottos, and stews.

Since returning home, those Swiss porcini mushrooms have become a permanent fixture in my pantry. I add them to vegetable soups, stir them into risottos, use them in noodle dishes, and build sauces around them. They are one of those ingredients that quietly make everything taste better.

Tagliatelle, Pappardelle, Or Something In Between?

This dish was supposed to be Tagliatelle ai Funghi Porcini.

That was certainly the intention.

The problem appeared when I started cutting my fresh pasta.

As someone still relatively new to making pasta from scratch, my knife skills and measuring abilities are not exactly Italian nonna level. Instead of producing the neat, elegant ribbons typical of tagliatelle, I somehow ended up with pasta that looked suspiciously like pappardelle.

The width of tagliatelle traditionally sits between six and ten millimetres, while pappardelle can be two or three times wider. Looking at the finished dish, it is clear I drifted well into pappardelle territory.

So perhaps this dish should be called Pappar-telle or Taglia-delle.

Whatever the name, it tasted fantastic.

Understanding the Difference

Tagliatelle and pappardelle are often confused because both are long ribbon-shaped pasta varieties.

Tagliatelle originates from Emilia-Romagna and is famous for pairing with rich sauces such as ragù alla Bolognese. The name comes from the Italian word tagliare, meaning “to cut.”

Pappardelle comes from Tuscany and is noticeably wider. Its name derives from the word pappare, meaning “to gobble up,” which feels entirely appropriate once you start eating it. The broad ribbons are designed to carry rich, hearty sauces, particularly those made with game meats and slow-cooked ragù.

My pasta may have wandered across regional boundaries, but thankfully the mushroom sauce worked beautifully with either style.

Building Layers of Mushroom Flavour

Although porcini are undoubtedly the star of this dish, they are not working alone.

I combined them with shiitake mushrooms and Swiss brown mushrooms to create a more complex texture and flavour profile.

The porcini contribute their signature earthy depth and almost meaty intensity. Shiitake mushrooms bring a deeper savoury character and a slightly firmer texture. Swiss brown mushrooms add familiarity and bulk, creating a balanced mushroom mixture that feels luxurious without becoming overwhelming.

The result is a sauce that tastes far more complex than the ingredient list suggests.

Simple Ingredients, Big Results

One of the things I love most about Italian cooking is how often it relies on restraint rather than excess.

This dish uses little more than mushrooms, garlic, olive oil, butter, white wine, cream, Parmesan, and fresh pasta. There are no complicated techniques or difficult ingredients. Every component simply supports the others.

The wine adds brightness. The butter provides richness. Parmesan contributes saltiness and umami. The porcini soaking liquid deepens the mushroom flavour even further.

Together they create a silky sauce that coats every ribbon of pasta beautifully.

A Dish Worth Making Again

The deliciousness of pasta with porcini mushrooms can only truly be understood by someone who has eaten it.

Every forkful delivers rich earthy mushrooms, silky sauce, and tender fresh pasta. It feels comforting without being heavy and elegant without being complicated.

Most importantly, it reminds me why I bought those three bags of dried porcini mushrooms in Switzerland.

At the time it felt like a bargain purchase.

Now it feels like one of the best culinary investments I have made in years.

Print