Parasol mushroom

Coulemelle

What it is

A mature cap opens flat to thirty centimetres, carried on a hard snakeskin-patterned stem with a double ring that slides freely up and down it — a loose collar no other common woodland mushroom offers. Across central Europe the cap is treated as a cutlet: floured, egged, crumbed and fried whole in a pan the size of the mushroom.

In the kitchen

Throw the stem away — it stays woody however long it cooks. Crumb the cap gills-up, fry two minutes a side in clarified butter, and salt it the second it leaves the pan.

Goes with

Butter Clarified butter Egg T55 flour Lemon Parsley Garlic

In season alongside

Borlotti bean Butternut squash Red kuri squash Acorn Antep pistachio Artichoke

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