Last Night's Dinner

A few weeks ago, during my Maine idyll, I at an arugula salad with sauteed shiitake mushrooms and crunchy bread crumbs at my favorite Maine restaurant, Fore Street. Yesterday, after I picked a sackful of arugula at Quail Hill and bought a half-pound of pristine shiitake mushrooms from David Falkowski at the Sag Harbor Farmer's market, I made my version for dinner. Because of the freshness of the ingredients, it was outstanding. I beg you to buy some of these mushrooms next Saturday. They are the furthest thing from the slippery gray examples in the produce aisle at King Kullen! Here is the recipe:

Arugula and Mushroom Salad
Serves 4

3 tablespoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 pound shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced (it sounds like a lot, but they shrink to nothing!)
1/4 teaspoon salt or more to taste
8 to 10 cups baby arugula, washed and dried
1 teapsoon sherry vinegar
1/2 cup toasted fresh bread crumbs

1. Heat the oil and garlic over medium heat in a large skillet until the garlic is fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms and salt and cook, stirring, until they have given off most of their liquid and are tender, 5 minutes or so.
2. Place the arugula in a large bowl. Sprinkle with the vinegar. Stir in the warm mushrooms, season with salt, and divide among 4 salad plates. Sprinkle each portion with some bread crumbs and serve.