Crimini Mushroom

Earthy and hearty, this kind of grain and mushroom dish appeals to me most in the fall, though it can be served any time of year.

If you’re looking for an undemanding tempeh dish that makes a large quantity, here’s a good choice.

I adore Paris. When I need to assuage my longing for this lovely city, I serve my family assiettes (referring to a generous platter of a number of components) like those typically served in the city’s vegetarian restaurants. The menus of these restaurants are not as extensive or innovative as those in the United States or Britain, but they do offer delicious, fresh food prepared with French flair. Seitan is a common offering. This one is an amalgam of seitan dishes I enjoyed at Le Potager du Marais, near the Georges Pompidou Center, and Les Cinq Saveurs D’Ananda in the Latin Quarter. For tips on creating Parisian-style assiettes, see the box preceding the recipe.

Serving tofu and veggies kebab-style is festive, but firing up the grill, marinating the ingredients, and soaking the bamboo skewers (so they don’t ignite) can be time-consuming. And most people don’t own a stovetop grill. Here’s a shortcut method that circumvents all those steps, made right on an ordinary griddle.

Orzo is a rice-shaped pasta. Look for the tricolor variety. While the orzo cooks, the vegetables for this soup roast in the oven, resulting in a sweet, smoky flavor when submerged in the broth.

Dino, our ever-vigilant head of security, is also a helluva good cook, though he hasn’t ingested a vegetable since the mid ‘60s. This is how he makes roast beef, and this is how I like to sauce it—sneaking in lots of luscious mushrooms. Try to get your hands on the baby bellas. They’re packed with flavor and slice up nicely into bite-size pieces.

On their own, roasted mushrooms are golden, buttery, and delicious, but we've gone a step further and jazzed them up by showering them with a blanket of crunchy, chile-flecked breadcrumbs.

Brian spreads a roasted-garlic paste on the dough under the mushrooms and potatoes, which gives this pizza an irresistible fragrance. If you have access to wild mushrooms, by all means use them. Bellwether Farms Crescenza cheese is a soft, supple, young cow’s milk cheese that melts well; mozzarella is stretchier, but a good substitute.

NO THANKSGIVING TURKEY IS COMPLETE WITHOUT a richly flavored gravy, but this is so good you’ll be using it year-round. Unlike most gravies, it can be made ahead to cut down on cooking stress.

THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST HAS A CORNUCOPIA OF MUSHROOMS: morels and porcini in the spring, chanterelles and black trumpets in the fall and winter, and fresh shatakes all year round. Earthy mushrooms bring a new dimension to stuffing. Serve the mushroom stuffing with Kale-Stuffed Chicken Breasts (page 118) or on its own as a vegetarian main course.

THIS RICH LAMB STEW is perfect for cold winter nights. It leaves out the traditional potato in favor of mushrooms and oregano, which provide a wonderful earthy flavor. A final twist comes in the addition of soy sauce, which intensifies the taste of this satisfying dish.

GOOD TO KNOW Cooking in parchment packets is a low-fat, no-mess technique for preparing eggs. Here, mushrooms and spinach—and a mere drizzle of olive oil—are baked along with the eggs for a delicious meal any time of day.

WHY IT’S LIGHT Wedges of polenta are lightly brushed with olive oil and broiled instead of fried. The asparagus spears are broiled alongside the polenta, and a small amount of cream is all it takes to make the mushrooms taste luxurious.

Mushrooms and beef have long been an inspired combination, and here they're joined in a particularly sophisticated way. Dried porcini mushrooms grind to a powder in no time in a blender and add a subtle woodsiness to the beef, while the truffle butter enriches the sauce with its heady aroma. Black-truffle butter is the best deal going. It gives you tremendous flavor at an affordable price, a fraction of the cost of a fresh black truffle.

Vegetables are often used together with fish in traditional Italian cooking. This recipe is over the top and seems to have every available vegetable cooked with shrimp; to me it resembles jambalaya without the chicken and sausages, and it is great served over steamed rice or pasta.

This is the quintessential Italian American dish: from the 1950s through the 1980s, every Italian restaurant had it on the menu. It is still one of America’s favorite dishes and is easy to make. The important part of the recipe is to begin cooking the meat and mushrooms separately, then combine them at the end so the flavors blend. Marsala is the special ingredient in this dish. Around the city of Marsala, Malvasia, a varietal of a very aromatic grape, grew in abundance. Wine has been made from this varietal for centuries, and the English took note of it and began importing it. The history of England and the New World needs no retelling, and this is most likely how Marsala made it across the pond. When the Sicilian immigrants settled in America, and rediscovered it, it was a natural reunion.

The sauce for this dish can be made a day or two ahead (keep the bacon separate) and refrigerated. Gently reheat as the pasta boils; add the bacon to the sauce during the last few minutes of heating.

Mushrooms, acorn squash, and rosemary lend a woodsy taste to roast chicken. We used cremini mushrooms, but regular white button mushrooms can be substituted.

We like this steak served with sauteed mushrooms and polenta, but it would also be great with a green salad or Parmesan Steak Fries (page 83). And since it’s made with commonly available ingredients, you can enjoy it year-round.