First, apologies there is no “after” picture of this dressing cooked – that’s what happens when you host a blended family of 13 for Thanksgiving dinner and you’re working hard to make sure it all gets on the table at the same time. Second, don’t panic that this uncooked dressing looks a little pink – I used purple onions and purple carrots from my organic CSA farm that tend to “bleed” a little color when cooking. Once the dressing is cooked and browned up nicely you can’t tell. It wasn’t until I went looking for my recipe for stuffing right before Thanksgiving last year that I realized I had never posted that recipe online. Well, let’s just fix that right now! This is a holiday recipe, not something you eat every week, so I made no attempt to cut back on the richness or calories. If your diet dictates otherwise, you can replace most or all of the cream and butter with low fat chicken stock.
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 12 ounces (1½ sticks) butter, melted
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 2 tablespoons oil, divided
- 2 cups diced celery
- 2 cups diced carrots
- 2 cups diced onions
- 1 pound mushrooms, chopped
- 10 cups cubed Italian bread (about 1 large loaf, crust removed)
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh sage
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary
- Combine the eggs, cream, melted butter, salt, and pepper in a large mixing bowl and whisk together.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large skillet over medium high heat; add the celery, carrots and onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly soft, about 5 minutes. Transfer vegetables to the cream mixture in the bowl and stir together.
- Heat the remaining oil in the same skillet and cook the mushrooms until wilted and starting to caramelize, about 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms to the other vegetables.
- Add the bread, sage and rosemary and stir gently until everything is combined and all of the bread has soaked up some cream and butter.
- Transfer to a large baking dish. Cook uncovered at 375 degrees until browned on top, about 45 minutes. If you want the dressing to taste like it was cooked inside the turkey, pour some turkey drippings or stock over the top just before serving.