If you know me at all, you know I spend most of my time thinking about how I can turn my favorite fresh produce into a galette. Sweet galettes are great (think apples and cinnamon), but savory galettes are really where it’s at. Succulent veggies nestled among soft pillows of herbed and lemony ricotta get tucked into a buttery, flaky crust – it’s the thing of my dreams. I recently wrote a recipe for summer squash galette (see it on the 1000 Stone website, here), and that was delicious too, but this mushroom galette has the earthiness of fresh, locally-grown mushrooms. Great additions to this, though not included here, would be roasted cherry tomatoes or caramelized onion slices – but don’t get me started, I could go on forever on this topic, so let’s get right to this recipe:

CRUST

Use your favorite recipe. I like Julia Child’s classic rendition, but to up the savory-ness, I substitute half whole wheat flour and bacon grease for some or all of the butter and lard. For a grain-free crust, buckwheat flour is really nice for baking.

2 Cups flour (1 Cup whole wheat and 1 Cup white is nice; all buckwheat flour for grain-free)

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 Teaspoon salt

8 Tablespoons very cold unsalted butter, lard, or bacon grease (skip some or all of tthe salt if you use bacon grease)

Ice cold water

Mix together 2 cups flour, 1 Tablespoon sugar, and 1 teaspoon salt thoroughly (if your bacon grease is salty, consider skipping the salt in this recipe); add 8 Tablespoons of freezing cold (you can stick it in the freezer for 30 minutes before using) unsalted butter, lard, or bacon grease and cut it into your dough with a fork or food processor, leaving it about pea size; finally, add about ¼ cup of ice cold water and mix lightly until a soft and crumbly dough forms (add more or less water to get the dough right, and add a little more flour if the dough gets too sticky), then turn onto a floured board and shape into two equal-sized balls. Wrap each ball of dough in plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator for an hour or two (I often use it right away though, you just need to be gentler with it when it’s not chilled). Or choose your favorite pre-made dough from the store.

FILLING

2 Cups ricotta cheese

1 Teaspoon salt

1 Cup chopped mushrooms from your favorite local grower (;

1 Cup chopped greens like spinach, chard, or kale

Oil, for sautéing

Garlic

Fresh herbs

Lemon peel (about 1 teaspoon)

DIRECTIONS 

Sauté the mushrooms in a drizzle of oil for about 5 minutes until softened, then set aside; sauté the kale in a drizzle of oil with garlic, cooking until just wilted and bright green, then set aside. Mix the ricotta with salt, fresh herbs, and grated lemon peel. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, then roll out one ball of dough from the recipe above (1 crust worth) into a big circle and place on your baking pan or parchment paper so it’s ready to be transferred right into the oven. Pile on the ricotta mixture in the middle of your dough circle, leaving about ½ cup behind in the bowl, and spread the cheese outward leaving about two inches of dough uncovered all around; top with the greens and mushrooms and finish off with big dollops of the remaining ricotta. Fold up the dough edges around the filling working all the way around your dough circle, covering just the outer edges and leaving the toppings in the middle exposed, then transfer to the oven and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the edges of the dough are toasty and browning. Enjoy warm or cool!