“Alice remained looking thoughtfully at the mushroom for a minute…. at last she stretched her arms around it as far as they would go, and broke off a bit of the edge with each hand.”

Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

These mushrooms are not hallucegenic like Alice’s. They go well with the Tivoli meatballs, but they would also make a good starter.

for 6

• 1 banana shallot, peeled and chopped fine
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 7 largish mushrooms or 21 smaller ones (peel if necessary, trim off the bottom of the stalk)
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
• 2 rashers of streaky bacon (fry the rest of the packet separately and use to sprinkle over salads) chopped small, and be careful to cut out any bits of bone
• 1 fat clove of garlic, crushed with some smoked salt
• 10 grinds of Indonesian long black pepper
• 30g/1 oz/½ cup breadcrumbs
• 25g/1 oz/¼ cup of parmesan
• Smoked salt and Indonesian long pepper
• 1 small bunch of flat leaved parsley (25g/1 oz) – chopped (you can use the stalks)

1. Preheat the oven to 210ºC
2. Begin to fry the shallot and bacon in a tbsp of the oil
3. Meanwhile quickly chop one large or three small mushrooms, including the stalks and add them to the frying pan
4. Add the thyme, garlic and pepper, move to the edge of the frying pan
5. Fry the bottoms of the mushrooms, move to a roasting tin and top with the onion mixture
6. Mix the breadcrumbs with the rest of the oil, salt, pepper, parmesan and parsley
7. Cook for 8-10 minutes, checking to ensure they don’t burn