by Anna Nelson – There’s something about fall that makes you want a heartier meal. The light changes, the air gets cooler, and suddenly a salad doesn’t feel like enough. You want something that sits with you, something that smells like it’s been cooking for a while even when it hasn’t. Mushrooms fit that mood better than almost anything. They’re earthy, they’re filling, and they carry flavor in a way that few other ingredients do. Cook them low and slow in butter and they turn into something deep and almost meaty.
The good news is you don’t need anything fancy to make that happen. We’ve come up with three recipes that work whether you’re cooking with dried wild mushrooms, fresh chanterelles, or just a bag of cremini from the store. The more varieties you can mix in, the more that flavor builds, but a single kind done well still makes a good meal. Right now Otterbee’s has fresh chanterelles in stock, with dried wild mushroom varieties from Oregon Mushrooms coming back in November. Whatever combination you’ve got on hand, pantry, fridge, or cart, these three recipes will put it to good use, starting with the simplest and working up to something a little more special.
Start Simple With a Wild Mushroom Ragout
If you want something warm and easy on a weeknight, start here. This recipe from Edible Cape Cod comes from a book called Untamed Mushrooms: From Field to Table, and it keeps things simple. Mixed wild mushrooms get browned well in olive oil and butter, then an onion goes in and cooks down until everything is deeply colored. A splash of white wine deglazes the pan, then stock goes in to bring it together. That stock can be plain vegetable or chicken stock, or the liquid left over from rehydrating your dried mushrooms, which adds even more depth. Right before serving, you can stir in a couple handfuls of baby greens like kale, which wilt down into the ragout and add a little color.
What you end up with is something savory and a little fruity, with that deep, forest floor earthiness that wild mushrooms bring on their own. The recipe calls for adding mushrooms based on how firm they are, so the sturdier ones go in first and anything delicate goes in toward the end, which keeps everything from turning mushy. It all gets spooned over soft polenta, which soaks up the sauce and turns the whole thing into a real meal.
This one comes together in under an hour and doesn’t ask much of you. It’s a good place to start if cooking with wild mushrooms is new to you, or if you just want something comforting after a long day. Fresh chanterelles from Otterbee’s will carry this nicely right now, and if you’ve got dried mushrooms left over from earlier in the season, this is a good excuse to pull them out. A bunch of kale would round it out nicely if you want to add greens at the end.
Step It Up With a Wild Mushroom Tart
Once you’re ready for something a little more involved, this wild mushroom tart from the St. Louis Herb Society is a nice next step. It uses a single sheet of puff pastry instead of a full pie shell, which keeps the work manageable while still looking like you put in real effort. Shallots cook down until soft and a little sweet, mushrooms get sautéed with garlic and thyme until they lose their moisture and start to brown, and the whole mixture gets piled onto the pastry with gruyere and parmesan before the edges get folded up and pinched closed.
Once it goes into the oven, the pastry puffs up around the edges while the center stays open, showing off the mushrooms and melted cheese underneath. It comes out golden and a little crackly on the outside, soft and savory in the middle. The gruyere adds a nutty sharpness that plays well against the earthiness of the mushrooms, and the shallots underneath keep it from feeling one note.
What makes this one worth trying is how forgiving it is. There’s no top crust to worry about, no crimping two layers together. It’s the kind of dish that looks like it took a lot more effort than it did, which makes it a good option if you’re hosting or just want dinner to feel like a small occasion. Fresh chanterelles alone will fill this out well, and a rehydrated handful of dried mushrooms added in only deepens things further if you’ve got some on hand.
Go All In With a Full Wild Mushroom Pie
If you want to make something that really earns a spot at a holiday table, this is the one. MasterClass has a wild mushroom pie recipe built with a proper double crust, top and bottom, and a creamy filling made from a mix of wild and white mushrooms. The filling gets thickened with a little flour and cream before it goes into the crust, which gives it a richness the other two recipes don’t have. Rather than a loose, saucy filling, you end up with something that holds its shape when you cut into it, more like a classic savory pie than a stew in a crust.
The whole thing gets topped with a second sheet of pastry, brushed with egg, and baked until deep golden brown. Cutting into it releases steam and that same earthy smell the ragout has, but thicker, more concentrated, since the filling has had time to really come together inside the crust. It’s the kind of pie that looks impressive sitting on a table before anyone’s even cut into it, and it holds up well if you need to make it a little ahead of time and reheat it.
This is the most involved of the three, mostly because of the pastry work and the extra time it takes to build a filling with real body to it. But it’s also the one that tends to impress. If you’re looking for something to bring to a gathering this season, or just want a project that pays off with a dramatic looking result, this is worth the extra effort. This one leans on having a good volume of mushrooms in the filling, so fresh chanterelles alone can do the job, and dried mushrooms are a welcome addition if you have them but not something you need to go track down.
Keeping Your Mushrooms Good Until You’re Ready to Cook
Whatever kind of mushroom you end up with, a little care keeps it at its best.
Fresh mushrooms don’t love plastic. Keep them loose in a paper bag in the main part of your fridge, not the crisper drawer, which tends to hold too much moisture. Don’t wash them until you’re ready to cook. Stored this way, most fresh mushrooms hold up for about a week, with delicate wild varieties like chanterelles on the shorter end of that. If you end up with more than you can use in time, mushrooms freeze reasonably well. A quick blanch in salted water, a good pat dry, and a freezer bag will get you a few months of use out of them, though the texture softens a bit once thawed, so they’re better saved for a ragout or a pie than something where texture matters more.
Dried mushrooms are far more forgiving. Keep them in a sealed container, somewhere cool and dark, away from the stove or a sunny window. Stored that way, they’ll hold their flavor for the better part of a year, sometimes longer, which makes them an easy thing to keep stocked in the pantry for whenever the mood for mushrooms strikes. Once you rehydrate them, treat them like fresh mushrooms and use them within a few days.
However You Cook Them, Start With Good Mushrooms
None of these recipes are complicated in the way that scares people off. They just ask you to be a little patient, and to use mushrooms that actually taste like something. Whether that’s fresh chanterelles from this week’s order, dried mushrooms tucked away in your pantry, or a reliable bag of cremini, any of these three recipes will put them to good use. Whether you’re making a quick ragout on a Tuesday or building a full pie for a holiday table, starting with good mushrooms makes the rest of the recipe easier than it looks.
Fall has a way of asking for food that sticks with you. Mushrooms, in whatever form you cook them, are a pretty good answer to that.
Anna Nelson is a writer and editor based in Smith River, CA. She writes about local food and seasonal shifts and is a proud OtterBee’s shopper and contributing author to the OtterBee’s Market blog.
