MUSHROOM CROSTINI WITH ROCKET AND PARMESAN

Preparation 15 minutes Cooking about 20 minutes Serves 2 Who doesn’t love mushrooms on toast? Virtually all fungi are delicious served in this way, so this dish can be very humble or very exotic depending on the variety chosen.

2 slices of sourdough or a large good-quality baguette extra-virgin olive oil 4-6 breakfast flats, Portobello or large oyster mushrooms butter, garlic butter or marjoram butter, for frying freshly chopped marjoram 2 garlic cloves rocket leaves Parmesan cheese

Char the sourdough on a hot grill pan or heat 2.5cm of olive oil in a frying pan until just below smoking point. Fry the pieces of bread one at a time, and whip them out as soon as they are

golden. Drain on kitchen paper and 3 keep warm. (The oil can be strained and used again for another purpose.) 2 Heat a little olive oil (or olive oil and butter) in a frying pan. Remove the stalks from the mushrooms and place them skin-side down on the pan in a single layer. Put a little dot of butter 4 into each one or, better still, use garlic or marjoram butter. (This is made quite simply by mixing some chopped garlic and parsley or some marjoram into a little butter.) Alternatively, sprinkle with freshly chopped marjoram and a clove of crushed garlic if you like. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Cook first on one side (the length of time will depend on the size of the mushroom: it could take anything from 3-6 minutes), then turn over as soon as you notice that the gills are covered with droplets of juice. Cook on the other side until tender. Meanwhile, rub the surface of the warm crostini with a cut garlic clove, put on two hot plates. Arrange a few fresh rocket leaves on each one and top with overlapping mushrooms. Sprinkle on a few more rocket leaves and freshly shaved or grated Parmesan and serve immediately. If there are any buttery juices in the pan, spoon over the mushrooms for extra deliciousness.