Serves 4
Ingredients
- 30g dried cep mushrooms
- 75g unsalted butter
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to serve
- 1 onion, finely diced
- 1 leek, halved lengthways and thinly sliced
- 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 250g chestnut mushrooms, cut into 5mm slices
- 200g pearled spelt, thoroughly rinsed
- ½ glass of white wine
- 750ml hot vegetable stock
- 2–3 tbsp double cream
- 50g hard cow’s, goat’s or sheep’s cheese, grated, plus extra to serve
- 1 small handful of flat leaf parsley, leaves picked and chopped
- Flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Put the dried ceps into a little bowl and pour over enough warm water to cover. Set them aside to rehydrate.
Place a large heavy based pan over a medium heat. Add one third of the butter and all the olive oil and when it’s all bubbling away, add the onion, leek and garlic, season with some salt and pepper and stir well. Fry gently for 4–6 minutes, until the vegetables are soft and smell sweet, then turn up the heat a little and add the chestnut mushrooms, along with the rehydrated ceps (reserve the soaking liquid for later).
Season again and fry everything for a further 6–8 minutes, until the mushrooms have given up most of their juices and are taking on a little colour. Add the spelt, stir, and add the wine, letting it bubble away for a minute or so. Start adding the hot stock, a ladleful at a time, stirring continuously. (It’s important to stir everything really well.) When the spelt has absorbed the stock, add some more and stir again. Repeat until you have used up all the stock.
Add all but the last teaspoon of cep soaking liquid to the pan. Drop in the remaining butter, and add the cream, cheese and parsley. Stir well, until the butter and cheese have melted. Season with plenty of salt and pepper and remove from the heat. Leave to stand for 5 minutes, then serve sprinkled with a little extra grated cheese, a generous trickle of olive oil and some flaky salt and freshly ground black pepper.
