The Mushroom Soup That Took Me Back to Napa

A beloved restaurant memory + an organic, real-food recipe

Creamy Napa-Style Mushroom Soup (Organic & Real Food)

Serves 4–6

Ingredients

(All organic, pasture-raised, or local when possible)

• 2 tablespoons organic butter (or ghee)

• 1 1/8 cups organic mushrooms, sliced

  cremini or baby bella work beautifully

  1/2 cup organic yellow onion, thinly sliced

• 1 tablespoon dried porcini mushrooms, finely chopped

• 1/3 cup organic Marsala wine

• 2 tablespoons organic dry white wine

• 2 1/8 cups organic heavy cream

• 1/3 cup organic whole milk

• 1 tablespoon organic sherry vinegar

• Sea salt, to taste

• Freshly ground white pepper, to taste

• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, minced (for garnish)

Instructions

1. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat.

2. Add onions and cook gently until soft and translucent.

3. Add fresh mushrooms and dried porcini. Cook until mushrooms release their liquid and begin to lightly brown.

4. Reserve a few sautéed mushroom slices for garnish, if desired.

5. Deglaze with Marsala and white wine. Reduce until slightly syrupy.

6. Add cream and milk. Heat gently until just below a simmer. Do not boil.

7. Blend until silky smooth.

8. Strain through a fine mesh strainer for that restaurant-quality texture.

9. Stir in sherry vinegar, salt, and white pepper.

10. Serve warm, garnished with parsley and reserved mushrooms.

11. Add freshly ground pepper, aged Parmesan and sour cream, to taste.

The Story Behind This Soup 🍄

Some meals don’t just feed you, they mark a season of your life.

When we lived in Northern California, dear friends of ours introduced us to a little restaurant tucked into St. Helena in Napa Valley. It was decadent and unique to anything we had experienced there.

The restaurant was called Martini House.

We would go whenever we could. Special occasions, spontaneous dinners, those rare evenings when life slowed down just enough to savor it. And every single time, without fail, we ordered the mushroom soup.

It was unlike anything else. Silky. Earthy. Comforting in a way that felt almost ancestral.

What made it even more special was the story behind it.

The restaurant was founded by a chef deeply connected to the land. Someone who foraged mushrooms himself, honoring the forests and seasons of Northern California. This wasn’t just food made with mushrooms, it was food made in reverence to them.

You could taste that.

When Martini House eventually closed, the space was lovingly carried forward as Goose & Gander, and thankfully, this soup lived on… a quiet tribute to what came before.

Years later, living a very different life on our homestead in Kentucky, I found myself craving that same feeling. Not just the flavor, but the memory. The friends. The laughter. The sense that food can anchor us to a place and time.

So I tracked down the recipe.

And now, I make it with organic, real-food ingredients, slowing it down, honoring it the same way it was always meant to be made.

Download the Recipe Card {HERE}

🤍 From My Kitchen to Yours

If this recipe speaks to you [if you love food with memory, meaning, and roots] - I share more like this over on Instagram and Facebook, where I document life at Magnolia Hill Homestead, seasonal cooking, herbal wisdom, and the beauty of slowing down.

Come follow along, stay awhile, and let’s keep these stories alive.

Because some soups are more than soup.

They’re home.

---