Galipettes: Champignons Farcis des Caves de Loire

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Galipettes are large, open-cap mushrooms — Paris mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) or, ideally, pleurotes (oyster mushrooms) — stuffed with a rillettes-based or goat-cheese-and-herb filling, and baked in the tuffeau caves where the mushrooms themselves are grown. The dish is the Loire's most characterful expression of its unique troglodyte mushroom culture: the same limestone caves that age Vouvray, store rillettes, and shelter the famous cave-dwelling mushroom farms also serve as baking ovens for this simple, satisfying preparation. The technique: select large, firm champignons de couche (cultivated mushrooms) or pleurotes, each 8-10cm across. Remove the stems, creating a cup. The classic filling uses rillettes de Tours as a base — spread 2 tablespoons of rillettes into each mushroom cap, top with a slice of Sainte-Maure de Touraine or Crottin de Chavignol, scatter with chopped parsley and a grinding of pepper. Alternatively, the vegetarian filling: fresh goat cheese mixed with chopped walnuts, garlic, parsley, and a splash of Vouvray. Place the stuffed mushrooms in an earthenware dish, drizzle with a tablespoon of walnut oil, and bake at 200°C for 15-18 minutes until the mushrooms are tender and the filling is bubbling and golden. The term 'galipette' is Tourangelle dialect for 'somersault' — the mushroom is flipped upside down (cap-side down, cup-side up) to hold its filling, like a little acrobat. Galipettes are served in the cave-restaurants along the Loire at Bourré, Montrichard, and Saumur — where you eat inside the tuffeau cliffs, surrounded by the very caves where the mushrooms were grown. They are the quintessential Loire starter: local mushrooms, local cheese, local rillettes, local wine — terroir on a plate.

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