Inside Sonoma

Now brown apples lay scattered about, sinking into beds of desiccated leaves. Bloated and cracked tomatoes cling to drooping vines, forgotten even by garden pests. Yes, the season of ripe, sweet and fresh has waned, but fall leaves us with plenty of long-lived, earthy foods like squash and pumpkins, sturdy green kale, pickled vegetables and dried nuts. Best of all, fall rains lure sepulchral toadstools from the moist, dark depths…not that I’d entrust my liver to any but the most tenured wild forager. Handily, gourmet shrooms crop up in stores year-round, autumn still being the best time to enjoy them. John Ash’s recipe with a foil “hobo pack” option sounds like fungal fun just begging for a camp-out–if only as far away as a backyard fire pit.

When I feel the first chill of fall, I reach in my cellar–more often than not, a brown bag, late of the grocery store–for a Pinot Noir. Like Sauvignon Blanc’s razor-sharp fruit slakes it on a summer day, light yet earthy, spicy and warming Pinot segues the palate into a darker season that will soon enough warrant bolder, spicier reds.

Calstar Cellars’ 2007 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir ($28.50) is a Sonoma County Harvest Fair gold medal-getter and textbook SoCo Pinot. With earthy strawberry conserve fruit, brown spice notes and just a li’l dash of cola, it’s neither too fruity nor much too earthy. Opening with a little heat, it only settles in and mellows over the evening–and likewise, its imbibers.

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MUSHROOMS BAKED IN PARCHMENT BEGGARS PURSES

From John Ash

Serves 4

This is a quick and simple preparation that can be done in the oven using parchment or on a grill or in the coals using foil (hobo packs). Any combination of mushrooms that you like are fodder for this dish. The herb bundles are there for flavor and aroma but not really to be eaten. Any combination of mushrooms can be used including cremini and portabella. I love doing this with my favorite mushroom supplier Gourmet Mushrooms who sell beautiful mail order basket of exotic mushrooms which can be shipped overnight anywhere. Other ingredients can be added to the packages like a few slices of meaty black olive, a few capers or whatever else you like. Delicious as a little first course on its own this is also fun to serve along side simply prepared fish and shellfish.

Fresh herbs such as bay, thyme, sage and rosemary
4 paper thin slices Proscuitto or Speck (a similar salumi that has been smoked)
1 pound wild or cultivated exotic mushrooms, cut attractively in large relatively even sized pieces
4 tablespoons fragrant extra virgin olive oil
4 teaspoons butter
1/4 cup or so dry white vermouth or other aromatic dry white wine
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest (use a microplane)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Tie the herbs up in little bouquets with a little twine. Cut 4 pieces of parchment paper in squares about 14 inches on a side. Brush or drizzle the olive oil on each parchment square and place a slice of proscuitto on top. Place mushrooms on top of that along with an herb bouquet. Add a teaspoon of butter and a tablespoon or so of vermouth to each. Sprinkle zest over and season liberally with salt and pepper.

Gather the edges of the parchment to form a bag and completely enclose the filling. Tie tightly with twine. Place on a baking sheet in a preheated 425 degree oven and bake for 15 minutes or so or until the bags are puffed and lightly browned.

Serve the mushrooms in their bundles so that guests can cut them open and be surrounded by all of the lovely aromas!

© 2005 Rev. 1/08