Recipe: Salsa ai Funghi - A simple but delicious sauce for pasta and meats

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Serves 4


  • 500g simple fresh mushrooms - chestnut, portobello or plain white mushrooms are fine
  • 100g of stronger, speciality mushrooms like porcini or shiitake. You can use frozen or rehydrated dried ones. If you can’t find speciality mushrooms like these just use more basic mushrooms.
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • A few sprigs of thyme
  • 100ml dry white wine
  • 150ml fresh cream
  • A drizzle of truffle oil (optional)
  • Handful chopped fresh parsley
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper


1 Chop up all the mushrooms into small chunks. The smaller the pieces the better. It may take a little time but if you can chop them into a rough dice then your sauce will be nice and smooth, as opposed to the pieces being big and chunky.


2 Heat a few good glugs of extra virgin olive oil in a large pan on high. Throw in half the mushrooms with half the thyme and a few pinches of salt. Fry until the mushrooms are browned and well cooked. We are cooking the mushrooms in two batches so that the temperature in the pan doesn’t go too low - if we put all the mushrooms in the pan at once we will lose the heat and they will just release their liquid and boil. Don’t worry if some liquid does form, just turn up the heat and fry until it has disappeared.


3 Set aside the cooked mushrooms, and cook the other half with the thyme, salt and oil in the same way.


4 Once the other half are done, put all the mushrooms back in the pan together with the chopped garlic and sauté on a medium heat for a few minutes until the garlic is soft and cooked (be careful not to burn the garlic). Add the white wine and cook until it has evaporated.


5 Add the cream, truffle oil (if using) and parsley, and stir over the heat until all is well heated through. Season to taste with salt and pepper and remove from the heat. If serving with pasta, mix the cooked pasta and the sauce together in the pan - if the sauce feels like it has gone too dry, add a little of the pasta cooking water to loosen it up. Enjoy!