This recipe comes from which isn’t really a “spring cookbook” per se, but hey, food allergies know no season. The author, Darra Goldstein, teaches Russian at Williams College and is the editor of Gastronomica, one of my favorite food magazines. I had already prepped the ingredients when my 15-yo walked in and volunteered to cook. She is a mushroom lover if there ever was one, and she greedily (I say that tongue-in-cheek) had the leftovers the next day, over rice. If you’re not allergic to wheat, this would be excellent with pasta or on pizza. One of these days I’ll have to work on a wheatless pizza crust recipe. The kids miss our homemade pizza-making days.

1/4 cup olive oil
1 pound mixed wild mushrooms, trimmed and sliced (I used a mix of shiitakes, oyster mushrooms, maitakes and a few buttons)
1 shallot, minced
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/3 cup chopped Kalamata olives
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons water
1/4 cup dry red wine
2 tablespoons minced parsley
1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
Freshly ground black pepper

Heat olive oil in skillet and add mushrooms, shallot and garlic. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Stir in the remaining ingredients and simmer 5 minutes more. Serve hot.

Ms. Goldstein says it serves 4-6, but more than half of it went to feed one very hungry teen.