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text Teresa Favi
photo Dario garofalo

Alessandro Della Tommasina
December 13, 2019

A special mushroom hunter

Alessandro Della Tommasina, from Massa, along with Riccardo Monco, makes up the pair of Enoteca Pinchiorri’s chefs coordinated by the legendary Annie Feolde

Alessandro Della Tommasina

How did you develop such a feverish passion for mushroom hunting?

As a kid with my family and then as a football-playing teenager: when my team and I were on training camp in Zeri, in the upper Lunigiana area, the coach would send us mushroom hunting in the woods as part of the training. Then the cook made the mushrooms into a pasta sauce which we had for dinner. 

What are the finest mushrooms?

Real hunters go hunting only for porcini and ovoli, but chanterelles and trumpet of the dead are delicious too. 

Let’s focus on porcini. The best quality?

Those found in the Tuscan Apennines area, in particular, the Casentino’s porcini. 

In what season?

From September through November. 

Is it true that mushrooms usually served in Italian restaurants come from foreign countries?

No, not at Pinchiorri’s!

What is your mushroom-based signature dish?

Our menu now includes a slightly browned striped prawn wrapped in Colonnata lard served with fresh porcini and a soft fruit sauce, and a mushroom and egg pudding served with mushroom stock (made with the mushrooms’ discarded parts) and mushroom caramel. 

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