Skillet Mushrooms and Thyme over Whipped Ricotta
Cremini mushrooms browned hard with shallot, garlic, and thyme, spooned hot over ricotta whipped loose with skyr, with chopped almonds and arugula on top.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
Some mornings I want something savory and I do not want eggs. It is the breakfast version of a dish I first ate as an appetizer, and moving it to the morning meant giving it enough body to actually be a meal, which is what the whipped ricotta does. Fifteen minutes of prep, twenty in the pan, and it feeds four people from one skillet and one bowl. If you have someone in the house who says they do not like mushrooms, this is the preparation to try on them, because hard browning turns them into something closer to meat than to the gray slippery things they are remembering.
The technique that matters is the dry pan. Mushrooms hold a great deal of water, and oil added at the start traps that water against the metal so they simmer in it and go rubbery. Put them into a hot dry skillet instead, leave them alone, and they will squeak, release their liquid, and then go quiet as it cooks off. That is the moment the oil goes in, and from there they brown fast and deeply. Shallot, garlic, and thyme join only in the last two minutes, so the garlic stays fragrant rather than turning bitter, and lemon juice off the heat pulls the whole pan together.
What makes it eat like a real breakfast is the contrast. The ricotta is cool and mild and slightly sweet, the mushrooms are hot and dark and salty, and where they meet the ricotta goes loose and the mushroom juices run into it. Almonds give you something to chew. Arugula turns half wilted, half raw, and its pepperiness cuts the richness. A plate of this holds you well into the afternoon, and it takes almost the same time as scrambling eggs for four.
Ingredients
- 1 scant cup part-skim ricotta (about 8 oz)
- 1 1/2 cups plain nonfat skyr
- 1 1/2 lb cremini mushrooms, stems trimmed, halved or quartered
- 1 large shallot, thinly sliced
- 4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
- 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 1/2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 cup raw almonds, roughly chopped
- 2 packed cups arugula
- 3/4 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
Instructions
- Whip the ricotta: Put the ricotta and skyr in a bowl with half the lemon juice and a pinch of the salt. Beat with a whisk or a hand mixer for a full minute, until the graininess disappears and it turns pale, glossy, and thick enough to hold a ridge. Refrigerate while you cook.
- Dry the mushrooms and heat the pan: Wipe the mushrooms with a damp cloth rather than washing them, and cut them into pieces of roughly the same size. Set your widest skillet, cast iron or stainless, over medium-high heat with nothing in it and give it two minutes to get properly hot.
- Brown them in a dry pan: Add the mushrooms with no fat at all and spread them out. They will squeak for a minute, then release their liquid and go quiet as it boils away, five to seven minutes. Once the pan looks dry again, add the olive oil and the salt and cook four to five minutes more, stirring rarely, until the edges are deep brown and crisp.
- Add the aromatics last: Stir in the shallot, garlic, thyme, and black pepper and cook ninety seconds, just until the garlic smells sweet and the shallot slices go limp. Take the pan off the heat and add the rest of the lemon juice, scraping up anything stuck to the bottom.
- Build the bowls: Spread the whipped ricotta across four shallow bowls, pushing it to the edges with the back of a spoon so it makes a wide shallow well. Spoon the hot mushrooms into the middle with all their pan juices.
- Finish: Scatter the chopped almonds over the top and tuck the arugula around the hot mushrooms so it half wilts. Add a little more cracked pepper and eat right away, while the two temperatures are still doing their work.
Variations
- Sherry and shallot: Add a splash of dry sherry to the pan just before the lemon juice and let it cook away, which deepens the whole skillet toward something closer to a French pan of mushrooms.
- Greens underneath: Wilt a large handful of spinach or chopped kale into the pan with the garlic so the greens come to the table hot rather than raw.
- Chile and lemon zest: Finish with a pinch of cayenne and a wide strip of lemon zest cut into threads for a sharper, brighter version.
- Toasted seeds: Swap the almonds for toasted sesame seeds, which gives the top a nuttier, more savory scatter and a finer texture.
- Rosemary and orange: Use chopped rosemary in place of the thyme and a strip of orange peel in the pan, then finish with orange juice rather than lemon.
Storage & Leftovers
The mushrooms keep four days in a sealed container in the refrigerator and are arguably better on day two, once the thyme and garlic have settled into them. Store them apart from the whipped ricotta, which lives happily for five days in its own covered container and will thicken slightly as it sits.
Reheat the mushrooms in a hot dry skillet for two or three minutes rather than in the microwave. The pan brings back the crisp edges that the refrigerator softens, and it drives off the water they give up while chilling. Whip the ricotta again with a fork and a squeeze of lemon before you spread it.
I would not freeze the ricotta base, which turns grainy and weeps when it thaws. The cooked mushrooms freeze well for three months in a flat sealed bag. Thaw them overnight in the refrigerator and reheat in a skillet, since going straight from frozen into a pan makes them steam.
Notes & Tips
- Start the mushrooms in a dry pan: Fat added too early traps the water the mushrooms release, so they stew rather than brown. Let the water cook off first, then oil them.
- Do not crowd them: A pound and a half needs a twelve-inch skillet. If yours is smaller, brown them in two batches and combine at the end.
- Whip for a full minute: Thirty seconds gets you loosened ricotta. Sixty seconds gets you the smooth, billowy texture that makes this dish, and it is the single step people cut short.
- Garlic goes in at the end: Sliced garlic added at the start will be bitter by the time the mushrooms are dark. Ninety seconds is all it needs.
- Warm the bowls: Run the serving bowls under hot water and dry them. Cold ceramic pulls the heat straight out of the mushrooms.
- Save the acid for the end: Lemon juice added while the pan is still on the burner cooks off and tastes flat. Off the heat, it stays bright.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- Ricotta, skyr, mushrooms, and almonds each do a different job here. The two dairy items make the cool base and carry most of the calcium and protein, the mushrooms bring the savory depth and the browning, and the almonds add the crunch along with more calcium of their own.
- Ricotta is made from the whey left after other cheeses, which is why it stays soft and slightly sweet rather than sharp, and the part-skim kind whips up light while still bringing real calcium to the bowl.
- Skyr is strained for a long time, so it comes out dense and tangy with a lot of protein behind it, and that thickness is exactly what keeps the base from sliding out from under the hot mushrooms.
- Cremini mushrooms are one of the few foods that make vitamin D, and browning them hard concentrates the glutamates that give this dish its meaty, savory backbone. They also carry selenium and B vitamins.
- A bowl this savory holds you well past the middle of the morning. The protein in the ricotta and skyr does most of that, and the almonds and their fat slow the whole thing down further.
- As you eat, notice the moment the hot mushroom juices run into the cold ricotta and loosen it, and let that contrast slow you down enough to finish the bowl at the table rather than over the sink.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use a different mushroom?
Yes, and mixing them is better still. Cremini and white button behave the same way. Shiitake caps, torn rather than sliced, brown beautifully and taste smokier, and oyster mushrooms crisp at the frilly edges. Portobello works if you scrape out the dark gills first, since they will turn the ricotta muddy gray.
My whipped ricotta is grainy. What went wrong?
Almost always underwhipping, or very cold ricotta straight out of the refrigerator. Let both dairy items sit out for fifteen minutes, then beat for a full minute rather than thirty seconds. A food processor will make it silky in about twenty seconds if the whisk is not getting you there.
Can I make it ahead on a weekday morning?
The ricotta base is the part worth doing in advance, and it will sit covered in the refrigerator for five days. Cook the mushrooms fresh if you can, since the browned edges are the point, but even reheated in a skillet they are worth the eight minutes.
Do I have to use skyr in the ricotta?
Skyr is what makes the base whip tangy and thick rather than heavy, so I would keep it if you can. Plain nonfat Greek yogurt behaves almost identically and is the swap I would make. Thinner yogurts will loosen the base too much to hold the mushrooms.