I absolutely adore mushrooms in whatever variety they come in – however, two weeks ago I, for the first time ever, had mushrooms with pesto and let me tell you this: it’s a perfect match! The umami deliciousness of mushrooms paired with the freshness of basil and the hit of garlic makes for an incredible combination. Since then I had them in a variety of settings, paired with pasta, on toast or in a salad. The preparation is really easy and you can use storebought or homemade pesto, if you want a recipe for that, see my take on a parsley pesto and just swap out parsley with basil – although you can, of course, also make this recipe with parsley pesto, I imagine it’d be very good too!

Ingredients: (for 2-3 people as a salad)

• ca. 400g Mushrooms (whatever variety you like, in this picture I used Champignons)
• 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice
• 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil
• 1-2 tablespoons of basil pesto (store bought or homemade)
• salt & pepper
• ca. 300g of Rucola

Preparation:

Clean and dice your mushrooms into bite-sized junks (don’t slice them too thinly, the texture won’t be as good). Heat the olive oil in a pan, add the mushrooms and sautée for 1-2 minutes. Dash them with lemon juice and season them with a bit of salt and pepper and sautée for another 2-3 minutes.
Turn off the heat, add the basil pesto and mix well.
For plating, make a bed of rucola, add a bit of lemon juice, top with the mushrooms – and enjoy!