Slow-Cooker Italian Mushrooms — When the Forest Comes to You

Fall. The second fall of the pandemic. The trees on KK are turning and the taproom patio is getting the fire pits ready and Milwaukee is settling into the grim reality that this isn't ending anytime soon. No vaccine yet. Cases rising again as the weather cools and people move indoors. Marcus is watching the numbers with the intensity of a man whose livelihood depends on people being willing to sit in rooms together. The Polish food series Part Two published in Milwaukee Eats this week: "The Establishment: Churches, Festivals, and the Kitchens That Built a Community." Eight thousand words about the golden era of Polish Milwaukee — the parish festivals, the pierogi marathons, the wedding receptions and funeral dinners, the women who held it all together with flour-dusted hands and iron will. Mrs. Wojcik's voice is on every page. She called after it published. "Jakub," she said. "You got it right." Three words. From Mrs. Wojcik, who has been guarding this history for eighty-two years, who has watched the old neighborhood change and the old traditions fade, who trusted me with her stories and her mother's stories and her grandmother's stories — "you got it right" is the highest honor she can bestow. The October RecipeSpinoff piece is forming: I want to write about the pierogi dough itself. Not a recipe — a meditation. On what dough means. On the way it feels in your hands. On the way it connects you to every person who has ever kneaded flour and water into something that can hold filling and love simultaneously. Dad called on Sunday. The Packers are 2-0 and Dad is cautiously irrational, which is his emotional range during good Packers seasons. We talked about the game for twenty minutes. Then he said, "Mom showed me the Polish food article." Pause. "It's important, Jake. What you're writing. Don't stop." Don't stop. I won't. Cooked a fall classic: Babcia's mushroom and sauerkraut pierogi — dried forest mushrooms, sauerkraut, onion, all sautéed together and wrapped in dough. These are the Christmas pierogi, technically — the Wigilia version — but I'm making them in September because I can and because the flavors are so deeply fall that waiting for December seems criminal. They taste like November. They taste like the kitchen before Christmas. They taste like everything that's coming.

The dried forest mushrooms I used in Babcia’s pierogi filling this week — that deep, almost smoky earthiness — reminded me that mushrooms don’t need to be wrapped in dough to carry that same weight of season and memory. When Mrs. Wojcik called and said “you got it right,” I wanted something slow and unhurried to cook alongside that feeling, something that asked nothing of me while it filled the apartment with the smell of October. Slow-Cooker Italian Mushrooms do exactly that: you set them going, step away, and come back to something that tastes like it’s been tended for hours — because it has.

Slow-Cooker Italian Mushrooms

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 4 hrs | Total Time: 4 hrs 10 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 2 lbs whole cremini or button mushrooms, cleaned and trimmed
• 1 packet (1 oz) Italian dressing mix
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped (for serving)

Instructions

1. Layer the mushrooms. Place the cleaned mushrooms in a single even layer in the bottom of a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker.
2. Add the seasonings. Sprinkle the Italian dressing mix, garlic, thyme, rosemary, black pepper, and red pepper flakes evenly over the mushrooms.
3. Dot with butter. Distribute the butter pieces across the top of the mushroom mixture so they will melt down through everything as it cooks.
4. Cook low and slow. Cover and cook on LOW for 4 hours or on HIGH for 2 hours, until the mushrooms are tender and have released their juices into a savory, buttery sauce.
5. Stir and serve. Give everything a gentle stir to coat the mushrooms in the accumulated sauce. Transfer to a serving dish, spoon the pan juices over the top, and finish with fresh parsley.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 165 | Protein: 4g | Fat: 16g | Carbs: 6g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 390mg