Last weekend I made a mushroom risotto with Field Parasol, Amethyst Decievers and Common Puffball mushrooms. These are all great entry level fungi for the pot. They are easy to recognize and difficult to confuse with anything poisonous.

Below is Field Parasol (Macrolepiota procera). They can be 30cm in diameter! Young ‘drumsticks’ on the left are best for eating, though I find the mature dinner plate sized cap is tasty too. Find them in open meadows and grassland.

Amethyst decievers (Laccaria amethyststea) are a lovely purple colour all over. They have the texture of a jelly baby. Older ones fade to a sort of violet brown. They are small but grow in large numbers…I’ve picked loads just sitting in a circle of beech leaves!

Common Puffballs look like ping pong balls with a sort of crumble topping. They can be smaller than that too. There are several subspecies of Common puffball with colour variations.

Break one in half – the inside should be solid and white. Earthballs are superfically similar, but have a yellowy, leathery cracked texture and are black inside – not edible like the Puffball.

I alo added the Fairy Ring Champignons (Marasmius oreades) that I picked outside the launderette last week. These dry really well so they’re great to store and rehydrate later.

Needless to say, I was the only one of us to eat the lovely risotto. My son and my boyfriend both preferred burgers wrapped in a slice of bread with no salad. (It’s like throwing pearls before swine!!)