By night, you’ll find sommelier Alexandra Bottone gliding the floors of Ninety Acres, guiding the farm-to-table restaurant diners to the best wines for their plates and palates at the eatery on the grounds of Natirar in Peapack-Gladstone.
But by day, you’ll find the Clinton resident trading her heels for sneakers as she forages the Hunterdon County countryside for wild mushrooms.
Bottone has been chronicling her foraging finds on her Instagram account, aptly named @theforagingsomm, for two years. But she’s been on the hunt for wild, edible fare – including garlic, mushrooms, ramps, watercress, wineberries and elderflower – for more than a decade.
“I like hiking and, like how wine and food go hand-in-hand, hiking and foraging go hand-in-hand,” Bottone said. “I was in the woods once or twice a week, and the more I started to pay attention to what was around me, the more I would find.”
In some ways, the journey to be an expert forager paved the way for Bottone to become an expert in wine. After working front-of-house in restaurants for 20 years and in fine dining for five years, she began studying to be a sommelier.
Then, after receiving her certification, she worked at Cree Wine Company in Union Township, which is owned by the state’s only Master of Wine, and was hired at Ninety Acres in 2022.
“Being in tune with seasonality is something that I’ve learned with foraging,” Bottone said. “I think it helps when you work at this level of dining and being able to understand fresh flavors and seasons and how that intertwines with food and wine.”
At Ninety Acres, which has its own 12-acre farm just steps from the dining room where every ingredient from vegetables to eggs are sourced, nothing is more important than seasonality. It’s been that way since the acclaimed restaurant opened in 2009, long before the term “farm-to-table” became a mainstay on restaurant menus.
Bottone initially judges wine and mushrooms the same way – by smell. And just like in wine, “if a mushroom smells plastic- or chemical-like, that’s usually a bad sign,” she said.
And no, Bottone has never eaten a mushroom that has turned out to be poisonous, although everyone asks her that question. “So far, so good. There’s a saying in foraging, when in doubt, throw it out,” she continued. “If I’m not 100% sure, I’m not going to take the risk.”
To get 100% sure, Bottone takes her time in identification. “A lot of times I will take mushrooms home and dive into my books and it’s a whole sort of meditative practice. What a lot of people don’t understand is that I can’t go in the woods and identify every mushroom right away,” she said.
After finding mushrooms in her favorite hiking spots like Voorhees State Park in Lebanon Township, Round Valley Recreation Area in Clinton Township, Cushetunk Mountain in Readington, and Hacklebarney State Park in Long Valley, Bottone cooks up her mushrooms in quiches, tarts, eggs, pastas and soups.
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“When I find maitake in the fall, that is my favorite to make cream of mushroom soup with because they are so huge that cooking them in a soup I find is the best way to maximize their flavor,” Bottone said. “And my kids love chanterelles and morels − they always ask me to put them in pastas with peas.”
Perhaps the best part of foraging for Bottone is the thrill of the chase.
“I always joke that it’s like Easter egg hunting for adults,” she said. “There’s something about being out there and being like, ‘I spotted one!’ And then once you spot one you’re like, ‘Let me find more’. “
When Bottone was a beginner forager, she often used social media to learn what mushrooms to look for in what seasons and how to identify them by following Instagram accounts like @blackforager, @foragerchef and @appalachian_forager. And today, she thinks “social media made foraging cool.”
Bottone recommends that people interested in foraging should start by following foraging experts on Instagram, joining foraging groups on Facebook and reading books by expert foragers.
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Novices can search for “beginner mushrooms” that are easy to identify and don’t have poisonous lookalikes, such as morels in the spring; chicken of the woods and oyster mushrooms in the summer; and maitake mushrooms, otherwise known as hen of the woods, in the fall.
“Just like with wine, you start at the beginning with the easy stuff and you practice and practice,” Bottone said. “After five years of doing that, I felt like I had mastered all the beginner mushrooms so I started to challenge myself to identify more mushrooms and other wild, edible foods like ramps, wild greens and wild berries.”
Bottone got better at foraging by honing her mushroom identification skills, just like how she got better at wine tasting by training her palate. Before becoming a sommelier, she didn’t think it was possible.
“Even five years ago, I would not have believed that a palate is something that can be trained and learned,” she said. “People think it’s some magical skill that some people have and some people don’t. When I learned that I could learn it, I dove in headfirst.”
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Bottone always enjoyed wine, but like many people, she stuck to her favorites without entering the sometimes overwhelming world of wine before she started sommelier training. Now, Bottone enjoys “the never-ending rabbit hole” of the wine industry. “If a wine expert tells you they know it all, they’re full of it,” she said. “There is always more to discover, new people coming on the market and new wine trends.”
At Ninety Acres, Bottone has focused on expanding the restaurant’s by-the-glass wine program, an element of wine lists that is often overlooked in dining. Since becoming the eatery’s sommelier, she has added about a half-dozen options to the by-the-glass list and also swapped out run-of-the-mill varieties for more distinctive, and sometimes local, wines, such as Meadowbrook Winery in Tewksbury’s Chardonnay.
“I don’t want to have the same four wines by the glass that are in every Cheesecake Factory,” Bottone said. “I want our wines by the glass to be just as interesting and unique as you would find on our full, 700-wine list. Even if people don’t want to drink a full bottle of wine, they can try something new and different that will elevate their whole experience here.”
Will Bottone ever combine her two loves into one cohesive experience?
“Realistically, probably not because there are only so many hours in a day for me to find time to hike and be with my family,” she said. “For me, foraging is a hobby.”
Spring morel tart with ramp vinaigrette
Here’s how Bottone makes a spring morel tart with ramp vinaigrette using foraged, wild morels, which is ideal as a side dish or hor d’oeuvre.
Both ramps and morels often grow in the same habitat and kick off the start of spring and foraging season, Bottone said.
Can’t find ramps? Bottone said that any other spring green onion, as well as wild garlic − which grows in most yards and wooded areas − is a worthy substitute.
Ingredients
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One sheet store-bought puff pastry
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1/2 cup ricotta cheese
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2 eggs
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One tablespoon Dijon mustard
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1 cup fresh morels (or as many as you’re lucky enough to find)
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1/2 cup aged, shaved gruyere or Parmesan cheese
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1/4 cup fresh ramps or other spring green onion
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1/3 cup white wine vinegar
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1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
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Salt and pepper to taste
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One tablespoon honey
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
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Roll thawed puff pastry dough into an even rectangle and place on nonstick baking sheet.
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Score puff pastry one inch from the edge all the way around the edges. Use a fork to pierce the center of the dough 6-8 times.
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Bake for 12-15 minutes until puff pastry has raised and started to turn golden.
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While the puff pastry bakes, beat together 1/2 cup ricotta with two eggs, one tablespoon dijon, and salt and pepper to taste.
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Remove puff pastry and let cool for five minutes.
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Flatten the center of the puff pastry gently with your hands and pour egg mixture in the center and spread evenly.
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Halve the fresh morels and arrange on the tart.
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Top with shaved gruyere cheese and bake until eggs are just set, about 20 minutes.
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In a food processor or blender, combine 1/4 cup ramps with 1/3 cup vinegar and 1/4 cup olive oil.
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Add salt and pepper to taste and a splash of honey.
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Once the tart has cooled for five minutes, drizzle with ramp vinaigrette, slice, and serve.
Follow Alexandra Bottone on Instagram at instagram.com/theforagingsomm. Visit Ninety Acres at 200 Natirar Dr., Peapack; 908-901-4710, ninetyacres.com.
Contact: [email protected]
Jenna Intersimone has been a staff member at the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey since 2014, although she’s a lifetime Jersey girl who considers herself an expert in everything from the Jersey Shore to the Garden State’s buzzing downtowns. To get unlimited access to her stories about food, drink and fun, please subscribe or activate your digital account today. You can also follow her on Instagram at @seejennaeat and on Twitter at @JIntersimone.
This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: Ninety Acres sommelier is a wine expert by night and a forager by day
