Peperoncino Maitake Mushrooms

Name: Peperoncino Maitake Mushrooms
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 15 min
Cuisine: Japanese
Ingredients: 2 maitake mushrooms (also called hen-of-the-woods); 1 tablespoon olive oil; 2 garlic cloves, minced; 1 dried red chili, finely chopped; Salt and pepper, to taste; Lemon wedges, to serve with

My smoky and spicy peperoncino maitake mushrooms blur borders. It’s a Japanese ingredient made in an iconic bold Italian chili pepper preparation that just plain works no matter what side of the pond you’re on. And it takes me just 15 minutes from start to finish.

I’ve found the trick to cooking with mushrooms is getting some color on them. Browning maitake mushrooms in a frying pan with a little oil not only adds a textural element, it elevates the natural earthiness of the mushrooms themselves. To me, preparing them peperoncino style just makes all the sense. Smoky dried red chilis and sautéed garlic may be an Italian flavor staple – but that particular combination walks hand in hand with these Japanese mushrooms to add pungency and heat.

My mom tells me that Japanese people call maitake mushrooms dancing mushrooms. Apparently they used to be very rare – and the legend goes that when someone found this edible fungus growing at the base of a tree, they’d be so happy that they’d spontaneously start dancing. Lucky for us, it’s fairly easy to track them down these days. I use these mushrooms in everything from maitake miso soup to hot soba ankake.

Ingredients
Variations
How To Make It
Expert Tips
Storage and Reheating
What I Serve With Peperoncino Maitake Mushrooms
Frequently Asked Questions

Ingredients

Scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this page for the full recipe steps and measurements.

Maitake Mushrooms. These have a rich woodsy flavor with plenty of umami. The texture is delicate and almost springy (not as dense as shiitake mushrooms or king oyster mushrooms). Maitake are sometimes labeled hen-of-the-woods mushrooms at the grocery store.
Olive Oil. Use a good quality first-press extra virgin olive oil for this recipe. Since the ingredients list is so short, I find that the flavors of every ingredient really shine through. Trust me, you’ll taste everything.
Garlic. I prefer my garlic finely minced for maximum coverage, but thinly sliced garlic would work too. Just make sure that the garlic pieces are all cut fairly uniform in size so they cook at the same rate in the frying pan.
Dried Red Chili. I chop one whole dried red chili and use both the seeds and the outer skin. This adds smoky heat without becoming overtly spicy. While I prefer using the whole chili, dried chili flakes from a jar work fine as well.
Salt and Pepper.
Fresh Lemon. While this is optional, a drizzle from a freshly sliced lemon wedge somehow elevates the whole show. It balances the otherwise spicy, umami and earthy flavors of peperoncino super effectively.

Variations

Peperoncino is simple by design. It’s one of those Italian combinations where every ingredient is purposeful, because the individual flavors compliment the whole. That said, here are a few quick additions.

Make the mushrooms more earthy. A trick I commonly use when cooking mushrooms is to add 1/4 teaspoon of soy sauce to the frying pan and stir after the mushrooms have browned on the outside, just before turning the heat off. This compliments the mushrooms natural umami, but I use little enough soy sauce that it doesn’t become salty in the process. This trick works with gluten free tamari as well.

Make it spicier. Add more heat by chopping a second dried chili pepper.

Add to pasta. While I serve these maitake mushrooms on their own as a side dish, they go great served on top of a creamy pasta or as an ingredient inside a tomato based sauce as well.

How To Make It

Prep the maitake mushrooms. Rinse and pat dry. Then separate into bite sized pieces.
Saute the mushrooms in oil until lightly browned.
Add the aromatics. Stir fry the garlic and chilis – and season with salt and pepper.
Serve hot with fresh lemon wedges on the side.

Expert Tips

Don’t cook the garlic too early. I get it. Most recipes call for the garlic to be added to oil as an aromatic early on. However, for these peperoncino maitake mushrooms, the garlic should be added to the pan after the mushrooms have browned – when there’s about a minute (two minutes max) left of cooking time. That’s because the garlic will burn if it’s in the pan the entire time.

Test one bite with lemon – and one bite without. While I wholeheartedly love a squeeze of lemon juice, it’s not for everyone. An easy experiment is to try one bite of the mushrooms without lemon juice – and one bite with. If you’re like me, fire for effect and drizzle with abandon. If not, at least you haven’t added citrus to the entire plate of mushrooms.

Storage and Reheating

Store leftovers (covered) in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. That said, these mushrooms taste best hot and fresh out of the frying pan.

Reheat in the microwave – or in a hot pan with a little oil on the stove top. They taste great cold, right out of the fridge as well.

I do not recommend freezing leftover cooked maitake mushrooms – as the texture will become unpleasantly mushy and watery once thawed.

What I Serve With Peperoncino Maitake Mushrooms

Sometimes, I make a batch of white or brown rice and call it a day. But since I’m using this Japanese ingredient in an Italian preparation, I have a lot of leeway when it comes making a meal out it. This is a side dish that blurs borders!

Other homemade mushroom recipes: foil baked enoki mushrooms, creamy mushroom curry, wood ear mushroom salad, farro risotto with sauteed mushrooms, Japanese mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy, savory spaghetti squash with mushrooms

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the entire maitake mushroom edible?

Yes. For the most part anyway. If the stem at the bottom is soft and easy to cut through with a knife, then the entire mushroom is edible. However, sometimes the very bottom of the mushroom can get a little tough and reedy. If that’s the case, just trim that bit off and discard it.

I thought you weren’t supposed to cook with olive oil. Something about a low smoke point?

Yep, olive oil has a low smoke point, meaning it will begin to smoke at a lower heat than neutral cooking oils like peanut oil, canola or grapeseed oil. This low smoke point makes olive oil a poor choice for stir fries cooked over high heat and for deep frying. However, this maitake peperoncino recipe is cooked on medium heat for a fairly short period of time – just long enough so the mushrooms start to brown. Not long enough (or hot enough) to smoke. The olive oil is important for the naturally grassy, verdant flavor it introduces to the peperoncino.

Is this recipe vegan? How about gluten free?

Definitely! This recipe is both vegan and gluten free as written.

Did you like this recipe? Are there changes you made that you would like to share? Share your tips and recommendations in the comments section below!