Recipe: roast garlic mushrooms with parsley and eggs by Gelf Alderson

I love mushrooms for breakfast, said Gelf Alderson, especially with plenty of garlic. I use nice big flat mushrooms for this simple, classic combination, but it's a dish that would work well with any variety. If you can get your hands on some wild mushrooms such as chanterelles or girolles, they'll take it to another level – just adjust the cooking time accordingly. And make sure you have a nice hunk of fresh crusty bread on the side to mop up any juices.

Ingredients: serves two

• 8 large flat mushrooms
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• a knob of unsalted butter
• a small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked and roughly chopped
• 4 medium eggs
• sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
• buttered sourdough, to serve

Method

• Preheat the oven to 220°C/210°C fan/gas 7.
• Cut the mushrooms into 1cm-thick slices. Place them in a medium baking dish with the chopped garlic and extra-virgin olive oil and tumble together. (Don't be tempted to add salt at this stage as this would make the mushrooms tough.) Bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
• Remove the dish from the oven, add the knob of butter and stir gently. Return to the oven for 3-5 minutes until the mushrooms are nice and soft.
• Take out of the oven, season with salt and pepper and toss through the parsley. Using the back of a spoon, make 4 hollows in the baked mushrooms and crack the eggs into these. Season the eggs with salt and pepper.
• Place the dish back in the oven for 4-6 minutes until the whites of the eggs are just set but the yolks are still runny. Check them often to make sure the yolks don't firm up, unless that's how you like them!
• Serve the mushrooms and eggs with warm sourdough… and a smile.
• Swaps: use any variety of mushrooms you like. Try replacing the parsley with chopped tarragon or snipped chives. And if you're not a fan of eggs, replace them with a ball of mozzarella – thickly sliced and cooked on top of the mushrooms until creamy and stringy.

Recipe from "River Cottage Great Roasts" by Gelf Alderson, published by Bloomsbury at £20. Photography by Emma Lee. To buy from The Week Bookshop for £15.99, call 020-3176 3835 or visit theweekbookshop.co.uk.

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