Matsutake ✦ ◆

Matsutaké

What it is

Japan’s autumn treasure, wedded to pine roots and impossible to farm — a boxed matsutake is a gift as weighty as a great bottle of wine. It is also famously resilient: matsutake is said to have been among the first living things to push up through the scorched earth of Hiroshima in 1945.

In the kitchen

Its perfume — pine, cinnamon, autumn rain — is the whole point: never wash it, never drown it in fat. Steam it in a dobin teapot broth or grill it dry and tear it by hand.

Goes with

Rice Kombu Katsuobushi (dried bonito) Chicken

Same species

Sooty head

Also used with

Kabosu Pike conger (hamo) Sudachi

In season alongside

Doraji (balloon flower root) Pine bolete Bagnoli truffle Bay bolete Bloody milk cap Blue foot mushroom

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