This Truffle & Mushroom Pate is a fantastic make-ahead starter that you can make the day before, and it can be made totally vegetarian using vegetarian parmesan.

For the Truffle & Mushroom Pate, you’ll need:

For the Truffled Mushroom Pâté

• 25g dried porcini mushrooms
• large knob unsalted butter
• 1 large shallot
• Truffle Sea Salt (or regular Sea Salt)
• 125g chestnut mushrooms
• 1 large garlic clove
• 30g freshly grated parmesan (or vegetarian parmesan)
• 125g mascarpone
• 1/2 tsp white wine vinegar
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 tbsp Black Truffle Oil

For the Spiced Butter Topping

• 50g unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp Black Truffle Oil
• flaky sea salt
• fresh thyme leaves
• pinch pink peppercorns
• pinch green peppercorns

First, pour boiling water over the dried porcini mushrooms and set aside to soak.

Heat the butter until foaming in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Peel and finely chop the shallot, and fry it with a generous pinch of salt for about 10 minutes until soft and translucent, but not yet starting to brown.

Meanwhile, peel and finely chop the chestnut mushrooms (you can buy these ready peeled if you’re lazy like me!). Add these to the pan, and cook gently for 20 minutes.

While the mushrooms are cooking, drain the porcini mushrooms and finely chop these too. Add the chopped porcini and cook for a further 5 minutes. Peel and crush the garlic, adding that to the pan and cooking for a further minute or two until aromatic. Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool for 20 minutes or so.

Combine the cooked mushrooms, parmesan, mascarpone, vinegar and a good amount of seasoning in a food processor, blitzing until nice and smooth. Scrape down the edges with a spatula and blitz again, gradually pouring in the truffle oil. Check the seasoning before dividing between 4 ramekins and set aside.

To make the spiced butter topping, melt the butter in a small saucepan over a medium heat until it has clarified. This means that the solids have sunk to the bottom and the clear yellow butter has floated to the top. Remove from the heat and pour the clear clarified butter off into a small jug – I catch any odd bits of solids by doing this through a small sieve.

Stir the truffle oil into the clarified butter and pour this over the top of each portion of pâté to create a seal. Lightly crust the peppercorns in a mortar and pestle, and sprinkle these, along with the thyme leaves and a sprinkling of sea salt over each portion, allowing it to sink into the butter. Chill in the fridge for a couple of hours until set, but bring back up to room temperature before serving with some little toasts and cornichons.