Buongiorno amici:
Making a good batch of marinated mushrooms is always a rewarding task, especially if you can get them on sale in your local market. The best idea would be to make them and preserve them in jars for those winter days when the price climbs because of limited harvest. The recipe below has been in my family for as long as I can remember. I hope you will make some and let me know the results. I am using the button-type mushrooms to avoid cutting them in half or quarter them.
{Image attribution via Monterey Mushrooms}
To make about 2 cups, you will need:
2/3 of a cup of extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup of bottled water
The juice of two freshly squeezed lemons
One large bay leave
Two garlic cloves, crushed with the back of a knife
Six whole peppercorn
1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt
One pound of domestic white mushrooms called buttons rinsed well in cold water and drained.
Procedure
In a large stainless saucepan measuring about 10 to 12 inches across, combine the olive oil, water, lemon juice, bay leaf, garlic cloves, peppercorns, and salt.
Bring the blending to a low simmer over moderate heat for about 15 minutes. Strain the marinade through a sieve and return it to the saucepan. Add the mushrooms, cover with a fitted lid and cook for about 5 minutes, turning from time to time. Do not prolong the boiling because it will shrink the mushrooms too much and diminish the yield. Let the mushroom cool in the marinade.
You can serve them straight away once they have cooled completely or refrigerate them for later use. The mushrooms will stay in excellent condition for at least three days.
If you intend to preserve your mushrooms in jars, the process is much more difficult but not prohibitive. You will find a great recipe and all the necessary steps for a successful project in this link.
Note: if you have excess marinating liquid, you can re-use it for one more application, remeasuring again and adjusting the flavor ratio accordingly.
Thanks for reading. Eat safe! Ciao Chef W
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CWCS
There is a constant, recognizable thread in Walter Potenza's career to elevate the level of Italian culinary culture in the United States. Besides his unquestionable culinary talent and his winning business perspective, Chef Walter has been a relentless educator with passion and knowledge who contributes to defeating stereotypes. His life, career, and values are a model, an example to follow, by any Italian gastronomy chef working outside Italy. A native of Mosciano Sant' Angelo in Abruzzo, Italy, is known as one of the most passionate and accomplished practitioners of traditional and historical Italian cooking in the nation. His fields of expertise include Terracotta Cookery, Historical Cookery from the Roman Empire to the Unification of Italy, the Cuisines of the Sephardim Italian Jewish Heritage, and the Mediterranean 21 Health & Wellness, with major emphasis on Diabetes, Celiac and the Cuisines of the 21 countries present in the MED basin.
