Mushroom Season: Tarte aux Trompette de la Mort a Wild Mushroom Tart Recipe
Cooler weather in Provence, a touch of humidity and maybe even some rain brings with it the promise of wild mushrooms foraged from nearby forests. However, you need to know where to look and do not expect the locals to show you where to find edible fungi. The good news is regional markets and small food stores should have a variety of fresh mushrooms. Paula headed to the Alps to visit her friend Didi and they decided to take advantage of the bounty of Trompette de la Mort (read more here) mushrooms to make a savoury wild mushroom tart.
“This is a recipe Didi and I made up (mostly Didi!) when given an enormous bag of freshly foraged Trompette de la Mort mushrooms. It’s wonderful as a starter, but could easily be a full meal when paired with a nice salad. Any mushrooms will do, but wild mushrooms do seem to really make this. If you can’t be bothered to make the béchamel, it’s fine without.” Read the rest of Paula’s A Table en Provence post here (recipe below).
Wild mushroom tart a version of this recipe with girolles:
Wild Mushroom Tart - Tarte aux Trompette de la Mort
This savoury tart is easy to make and you can use any mushroom mix that you find. The Trompette de la Mort is impressive (and tasty), but girolles or chanterelles work just fine too.
Ingredients
Filling and Pastry:
- 600 grams wild mushrooms whatever you find but Chanterelles—black or otherwise—are perfect
- olive oil or butter
- 1 splash white wine or rosé
- 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
- ¼ cup crème fraîche
- salt and pepper
- tarragon flat leaf parsley, chives chopped
- ¼ - ½ cup béchamel sauce see below
- pâte feuilletée or quiche pastry, or puff pastry
Béchamel:
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp flour
- 1 1/4 cups milk
- salt
- nutmeg freshly ground
- freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
For the béchamel:
- Make the roux: melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.
- Stir in the flour and cook, stirring constantly, until the paste cooks and bubbles a bit, but don't let it brown—about 2 minutes. It should smell like shortbread cookies when it’s ready.
- Add the milk, bit at a time to avoid clumps. If you have clumps, use a whisk to work them through.
- Continue to stir as the sauce thickens.
- Bring it to a boil.
- Add salt, nutmeg and pepper to taste, lower the heat and cook, stirring for 2 to 3 minutes more.
- Remove from the heat. To cool this sauce for later use, cover it with parchment paper or saran wrap to prevent a skin from forming.
- If you want to add cheese: Take off the heat and stir in 1/2 cup grated cheese (for this I suggest parmesan, grano padano, gruyère or a nice comté). If the cheese isn’t completely melted, put back on a low heat until fully melted.
- Clean the mushrooms thoroughly from dirt, twigs, leaves etc. If mushrooms are very large, give them a rough chop.
- Put a good couple tablespoons of olive oil or butter (or both) in a sautée pan on medium to high heat.
- Once warmed, add the mushrooms (they should sizzle).
- Add salt and pepper and cook until most of the water has evaporated.
- Add the garlic and cook for a few minutes.
- Then add the wine and cook until all liquid has evaporated.
- Turn down heat and add crème fraîche.
- Add the fresh herbs at the end and adjust the seasoning. You can use any herbs you like, but I’ve had rave reviews about the tarragon!
For the Pastry:
- The quickest is to use store bought puff pastry here, and it is delicious. If you do, place it in a tart pan, brush with olive oil, and dock the pastry with a fork. Bake according to package instructions, but likely for only 10-15 is all you need. You want to pre-bake it completely.
Assembly and finish:
- Once the pastry is cooked, add a layer of béchamel to the bottom. Place mushroom mixture on top. Put back in the oven until thoroughly warmed, about 10 minutes. Enjoy!
Notes
Although, store-bought pastry works fine for this recipe it would also be good with a basic tarte/quiche pastry if you want to keep it homemade. You can find a basic recipe here.
Note: How hot should the milk be for the béchamel? This is an ongoing argument. Many recipes insist the milk be warm. However, when studying at the Cordon Bleu they insisted it be cold. They said, “never add hot to hot, or cold to cold. It should be one hot, one cold’. As your roux will be hot, no need to warm the milk. I’ve done it a million times and never warmed the milk. It works just fine.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
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