Switzerland’s Scrumptious Surprises

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Although edible, this mushroom is rarely used in cuisine. One of the best-known ink caps, Coprinus disseminatus prefers soil mixed with fragments of wood. By Thomas Walsh

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Recipes:

• "Half-and-Half" Fribourg Fondue
• Pumpkin Cream Soup 
• Mushroom Mousse 
• Pumpkin Brioche
• Zucchini Treasure Chest

Sidebar:

• Swiss Wines

Switzerland, with its 40 to 60 inches of annual rainfall, not only provides lush grass for the cows that produce milk for its famous cheese and chocolate, but it also has ideal conditions for growing another beloved product — mushrooms. In fact, Switzerland is the mushroom capital of the world, with 34 types of edible mushrooms, including rare and expensive truffles. In a recent tour of Switzerland, I sampled all these culinary delights, prepared the Swiss way and flavored with the herbs that grow in this region.

Shortly after arriving in Fribourg, photographer Thomas Walsh and I dine on one of Switzerland’s specialties: fondue. This is no ordinary fondue, but a sumptuous herb fondue. Our host, Sabine Moser, from the Swiss Tourism Board, explains that a Fribourg fondue, called moitié-moitié (or half-and-half), consists of half Gruyère and half a local cheese, Vacherin Fribourgeois. I spear a piece of fresh baguette with a long fondue fork, dip it into the bubbling cheeses and bite into an amazing mélange of flavors. Herbs bring out and complement the sweet, strong flavor of the cheese without overwhelming it.

The Gruyère cheese-producing district surrounds the castle of the former Counts of Gruyères, feudal lords of Savoy from the 11th to the mid-16th century. Moser describes the Vacherin as softer and more yellow than Gruyère.

Marc Berchtold, son of the owners of the family-run Walliser Spycher hotel in Riederalp, says of the area’s cheese producers: “They export the best cheese and keep the second-quality cheese here. If you want to eat a really high-quality Gruyère, you’ll find the best in the United States and other foreign countries.”

On with the Herbs

Early the next morning, Gregor Kozlowski, a doctor of botany, guides us on a tour of the University of Fribourg Botanical Garden. Kozlowski, who wrote a book on Swiss ferns, shows us a variety of wild plants that people used as food or medicine 200 years ago. He points out indigenous wild parsnips (Pastinaca sativa). “People ate these as one of the most popular vegetables, like carrots, for about 1,000 years until potatoes, introduced from the New World, replaced them,” he says. He also shows us pot marigold (Calendula officinalis), still used today in salads but now endangered in the wild; burnet (Sanguisorba minor), used in salads, as a vegetable and as a spice for wines, soups or egg dishes. Its vitamin-rich leaves taste like nutty cucumbers. Other native herbs include peppermint (Mentha ¥piperita), chicory (Cichorium intybus) and thyme (Thymus vulgaris).

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