Baked Stuffed Mushroom Caps

Cooking Instructions

1. Put the dried mushrooms in 2 cups of lukewarm water and let them soak for at least 30 minutes.

2. Put the soft crumb and milk together in a small bowl or deep dish and set aside to soak.

3. Wash the fresh mushrooms rapidly under cold running water, and pat them thoroughly dry with paper towels, taking care not to bruise them. Gently detach the stems without breaking the caps.

4. Line a wire strainer with a paper towel and place it over a small saucepan. Lift the porcini from their soak, but do not discard the liquid. Pour the liquid into the strainer, filtering it through the paper towel into the saucepan. Rinse the reconstituted porcini in several changes of cold water, making sure no grit remains attached to them. Add them to the saucepan and cook, uncovered, over lively heat until all the liquid has boiled away.

5. Preheat oven to 400(degrees).

6. Chop the cooked reconstituted porcini, the fresh mushroom stems, the pancetta, and anchovy fillets all very fine. It can be done by hand or in a food processor.

7. Put all the above chopped ingredients in a mixing bowl, adding the basil leaves and chopped garlic. Take the milk-soaked crumb into your hand, squeeze it gently until it stops dripping, and add it to the bowl. Break the egg into the bowl. Add the parsley, marjoram, salt, and several grindings of pepper, and thoroughly mix all the ingredients in the bowl with a fork until they are combined into a smooth, homogeneous mixture. Taste and correct for salt and pepper.

8. Stuff the mushroom caps with the mixture from the bowl. Put enough stuffing into each cap to make a rounded mound. Sprinkle the mounds with bread crumbs.

9. Choose a baking dish that will accommodate all the mushroom caps side by side a single layer. Smear the bottom and sides of the dish with a little of the olive oil. Put the mushrooms in the dish, stuffed sides facing up. Crisscross the mushrooms with a thin stream of olive oil, lightly daubing the stuffing.

10. Place the dish in the uppermost level of the preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes, or until the mounds of stuffing have formed a light crust. After removing from the oven, allow them to settle for several minutes before serving.