Lost and Found in the Woods: Funghi Porcini
By Nancy Harmon Jenkins
OCTOBER IN ITALY IS USUALLY a time of fungomania, the annual attack of intense mushroom madness that afflicts Tuscans, Umbrians, and others who inhabit the peninsula’s mountainous central spine. In ordinary times, autumn rains have begun to soak the earth, still warm from summer’s heat, producing ideal conditions for precious funghi porcini (various spe…