The Garfagnana region of Tuscany is steeply wooded and rural—quite different from the more well-known parts of the area. Not only is the area a mushroom-hunter’s heaven, the mint the Italians call nepitella (Calamintha nepeta) grows wild here, too. So, this is a forager’s supper, and it is also an ace pasta for beginners. Strapponi are hand-torn pieces of pasta, ripped any which way; these ragged bits of pasta are also called straccetti.
Marica demonstrated this for us. She is a cook at the Agriturismo Venturo, in a little town called Castelnuovo where we stayed during filming in the region. She’s too young to be a nonna but her recipe is too good to pass over! If you can only find dried porcini mushrooms, then use fresh mushrooms of a different variety—mixed wild mushroom, girolles, or chanterelle will also work.
