Make this luscious soup with high-quality mushrooms. The recipe calls for cremini and shitake, but this works great with any mushroom, really. Chanterelles, hedgehog, porcini, the sky is the limit. Adapted from Smitten Kitchen.

Ingredients

• 1 oz dried mushrooms (porcini, morels, or shitakes)
• 1/4 c olive oil
• 2 fresh sprigs of rosemary
• 4 fresh sprigs of sage
• 1 large yellow onion, peeled and thinly sliced
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1.5 t salt
• 1/4 t freshly ground white pepper
• 1 lb white button or cremini mushrooms, cleaned and thinly sliced
• 1 lb shitake mushrooms stemmed, cleaned and thinly sliced
• 6 c chicken stock, vegetable stock, or water
• 1 c heavy cream
• 2 T unsalted butter

Instructions

1. Soak dried mushrooms in 1 cup of boiling water for 20 to 30 minutes, until plump.
2. Remove from liquid and mince, then set aside.
3. Reserve and strain the soaking liquid – run it through a coffee filter to remove grit and set aside.
4. Bundle sage and rosemary together with kitchen twine.
5. Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat.
6. When the oil is hot, add the herb bundle and sizzle for a few minutes on both sides to infuse the oil.
7. When the oil-herb mixture if fragrant, add onion, garlic, salt and pepper. Cook 5 minutes, until onion is soft and translucent but not brown.
8. Turn heat up to high and add mushrooms. Cook for 10 minutes – the mushrooms will give off their liquid as they deflate – cook until the liquid is gone, stirring occasionally. (Note: if you are using fresh mushrooms that have a high water content, like chanterelles, dry fry mushrooms in a separate pan before adding to the onion mixture.)
9. Add chicken stock, dried mushrooms, and soaking water to the mushroom-onion mixture. Simmer for 30 minutes.
10. When the soup is fully cooked, remove the herbs and add the cream and butter.
11. Puree the soup until smooth (or to your desired consistency.)