Foodie experience found thanks to Nic Cage

Foodie experiences can reveal themselves in myriad places. Sometimes, it's a restaurant that tickles our taste buds, makes our eyes widen in pleasure and surprise. Sometimes, it's a recipe that reminds us of a childhood memory, brings us back to that time in the kitchen when we couldn't see over the counter yet. And sometimes, a foodie experience will be inspired by a movie.

I watched a movie this weekend called "Pig." It stars Nicolas Cage, and to put it in its simplest terms, it is about a man who goes on a righteous journey to find his stolen truffle pig. He lives alone in a fairly rustic cabin with his pig called Pig, and they roam the dense forests looking for the elusive truffle, selling it to the flashy businessman who makes the weekly journey to buy the expensive mushroom direct from the finder and takes it to the city to sell for a hefty markup. Cage's character doesn't care about the outside world, living a simple, quiet life, until someone steals his pig, who is his source of income and beloved pet.

Just as a warning, this movie is rated R, and it is for violence and cursing. The beginning half of the movie is odd and jarring, and that makes the gentle second half much more poignant. But all through the movie, food exists, along with a bone-deep respect, almost reverence for it. From sourcing the purest ingredients, to just following the calling of your heart and letting cooking lead to absolute joy, this movie is about food and how it brushes up against and enhances our humanity. I have not been so stirred and excited about food by a movie since "Ratatouille."

In the beginning of the movie, Cage's character prepares and eats a slice of mushroom tart outside of his cabin. The mushrooms were undoubtedly picked by him fresh from the wild, and he enjoys the morning with this simple dish. I decided this recipe wasn't beyond my scope of skill like most of the other food prepared in this film, so I searched for a recipe for this exact tart and found it. You can find the ingredients list online at ifunny.co/picture/pig-2021-movie-recipes-ingredients-rustic-mushroom-tart-for-the-BK51JoNq8 and the preparation instructions at ifunny.co/picture/pig-2021-movie-recipes-preparation-rustic-mushroom-tart-crust-preheat-TzqiCoNq8.

I made the tart, and active prep time wasn't too horribly long. I cheated on the crust and used a store-bought frozen puff pastry. The only problem I found in the recipe was the cook time wasn't nearly long enough. After the temperature was turned down, it still needed 30 to 45 minutes rather than the 15 it called for. Now that the technical stuff is over, how did it taste?

A slice of Rustic Mushroom Tart, laden with mushrooms floating in a velvety smooth egg and cream mixture.Submitted by Rebecca LaClair

This is the most mushroomy mushroom recipe that ever mushroomed. Therefore, if you don't like mushrooms, don't bother with this. But if you do like these little bites of heaven from the dirt, man oh man, are you in for a treat. One slice of mushroom tart was so rich, thick with robust mushroom stoutness and with a creamy texture that was due to all of the heavy cream in the custard mixture. I drizzled a tiny bit of white truffle oil on my first slice to really up the mushroom ante, but it wasn't needed.

The hardest part about making this tart was waiting for it to cool off. It is recommended to eat this kind of tart lukewarm, and I second this recommendation. I ate a piece while it was still fairly hot, after it had rested about 15 minutes outside of the oven after baking, just because I couldn't wait. But if you can bear to wait 45 minutes instead, that second piece that I had at that time was somehow even better.

Part of me wonders what the texture would have been like if the mushroom mixture was food processed with the cream and eggs before baking. I may try it that way next time, just to see what it does to the dish. I think I may enjoy it even more.

I'm glad I watched "Pig." Though it had some violence, there was also a deep and abiding peace and more than a little beauty here. Much of this beauty threaded through food and the way people interact with it, and each other. In this age of action blockbusters, I found this movie thought-inducing and reflective. Maybe you will, too.