The French call this galette tarte rustique lit. rustic tart as it’s quick and with no fuss, The star ingredient : champignons de Paris / Paris mushrooms.
Where French love affair with button mushrooms come from
Champignons de Paris / Button mushrooms are called Paris Mushrooms, which is now a misnomer as the majority are now grown far away form Paris, nowadays in Anjou region.
They first appeared in France in Versailles (Louis 14’s period) but started to have a huge production at the beginning of 19 century.
A Parisian Farmer called Chambry realized that Paris mushrooms grow better underground and from then production became massive and spread in Catacombs and abandoned carries (where blocks of stone for the construction of Paris were taken).
Sadly most champignons de Paris sold in French markets come from Poland, so we have to watch carefully the origin when buying mushrooms here in France, even at farmers markets!
How to prepare this mushroom tart
- First sauté mushroom in a pan with onion and garlic. Season, add herbs. Butter gives a better taste than oil. If you get a lot of vegetation water, then don’t hesitate to drain.
- Roll out a pie pastry and place mushroom in a thick layer, leaving an empty space all around. You’ll need that extra pie pastry to fold the shape of the galette.
- Add feta cheese chunks here and there and fold the edges of the pie pastry as on the photos. Roughly, flip pie pastry on the vegetables, this is where the name of this dish comes from, it’s a rustic preparation! Brush with egg wash so that you will get a nice golden brown color to the crust.
- Bake in the oven for 10 to 30 min until crust is perfectly baked.
The French cook a lot champignons de Paris. Here I have 2 varieties of champignons de Paris to show you as in France we often find white ones but there are brown ones as well.
Mushroom soup is the most easy dinner. Another way to cook mushroom is in the oven with Boursin cheese, it makes the perfect sauce for pasta.
Tarte rustique / lit. rustic tarts are very convenient in my opinion and I love the way they look. They are so quick and easy to prepare.
- If you make your own pie pastry, no need to roll it out perfectly and if you use ready-made, it’s so quick.
- You can have any kind of generous vegetable filling without needing to add a batter as for quiches which makes the galette healthier.
Champignons de Paris Button Mushrooms Galette
Ingredients
- 1 shortcrust pastry
- 750 gr button mushrooms champignons de Paris
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 onion or 2 shallots
- 50 gr feta or other cheese
- 1 knob butter +/- 25 gr
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 egg or cream to glaze
- salt
- pepper freshly ground
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 180 °C / 350°F.
Precook mushrooms
- Heat the oil and butter in a pan.
- Chop garlic and onion and briefly fry them.
- Meanwhile cut the mushrooms into large pieces of ithe same size. Then fry them for 5 to 10 minutes over high heat, season with salt and pepper. We just want to brown and precook mushroom.
- If mushrooms released their vegetation water, drain them, that’s important.
Bake galette
- Roll out the pie pastry on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
- Arrange mushrooms, leaving 3 cm empty all around. Roughly fold over the edges as on the photos.
- Place pieces of feta cheese here and there.
- Brush the folded edges with the egg beaten (or with crème fraîche) this will help to nicely brown the crust.
- Optional: you can add herbs (here thyme) or spices.
- Bake 20 to 30 minutes in the oven at 180 °C / 350°F until the shortcrust pastry is cooked.
I tired this recipe with some roasted chicken tonight. My only deviation was to use crumbled goat cheese instead of feta. It’s was delicious! Thanks for the inspiration.
An impressive and tasteful dish that is relatively easy to make. Thank You