Plaice with porcini mushrooms and blueberries

Last year I started working as a consultant, recipe writer and “face” of Italian site www.principessaplatessa.it
This website was created by the Dutch Fish Marketing Board (in Dutch: Nederlands Visbureau) to make it easier for Italian consumers to gather information about, among other things, the origins, the fishing methods, the nutritional values and the many possible ways to prepare one of Italy’s favourite fish types: Princess Plaice (that’s what Principessa Platessa means).

For this beautiful and interesting site I’ve written several recipes based on Italian regional themes, and more will follow (at least 20 in total, the number of the Italian regions). The first one I wrote is plaice fillets with porcini mushrooms and blueberries, a dish inspired by a classic from Trentino Alto Adige, the beautiful Northern Italian region.
For this plaice recipe we made a video that you can find here.

Blueberries are often used in Trentino since they’re very easy to find and quite popular, not only for desserts and jams. One of the great risotto recipes from the region is prepared with, you guess it, porcini mushrooms and blueberries: the risotto with mushrooms and blueberries (click to read, in Dutch) that in 2015 I prepared live in Tijd voor Max, a program on Dutch TV.  That recipe inspired the one I created for Principessa Platessa and I really hope you will make it too because the combination of ingredients makes it fresh and rich at the same time, and also very tasty.

Filetti di platessa con porcini e mirtilli

Serves 2

Ingredients

10 gr. dried porcini
150 gr. mixed fresh champignons and mushrooms
2 tablespoons of butter
1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
a few sprigs of thyme
1 garlic clove
2 plaice fillets, clean
½ glass of aromatic white wine from Trentino (for ex. Traminer, Pinot or Chardonnay)
100 gr. blueberries
salt & black pepper
some flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Soak the dried porcini mushrooms in a bowl of hot water for about 15 minutes, then cut them into small pieces and keep the soaking water aside.
Clean the other mushrooms with a brush or with some moistened kitchen paper, cut them into slices/chunks and sauté them in a pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of butter together with the porcini, cut into small pieces, a few sprigs of thyme and a finely chopped clove of garlic.
Season with salt and pepper, add the white wine and cook a couple of minutes more on a reasonably high flame to let the alcohol evaporate completely.
In another frying pan, briefly sauté the blueberries in 1 tablespoon of melted butter (a couple of minutes will be enough). Season with salt to taste and add to the mushrooms.
Place the fillets of plaice in the pan with the mushrooms and the blueberries, add a few tablespoons of the mushrooms soaking water and cook over a low heat with the lid on the pan until the fish is thoroughly cooked.
Season with salt and pepper, garnish with some chopped parsley or fresh thyme sprigs and serve with mashed potatoes.