Mushrooms in Ketsi

Preheat the oven to 200°C. If you're using a clay ketsi, place it in a cold oven and heat it up together with the oven so the dish doesn't crack from a sudden change in temperature.

Wipe the mushrooms with a damp cloth, gently twist off the stems, and leave the whole caps with a hollow inside. Don't use the stems for this dish.

Take out the hot ketsi using oven mitts, put 40 g of butter into it and spread it over the bottom. Arrange the mushroom caps tightly side by side, gill-side up.

Cut the remaining 80 g of butter into small pieces and place them in the hollow of each cap. Bake uncovered for 15 minutes, until the mushrooms release their juices, shrink in size, and become tender.

Grate the sulguni on a coarse grater and fill each cap with it on top of the butter. If the cheese is low in salt, add salt to taste.

Return the ketsi to the oven for another 8–10 minutes, until the sulguni has completely melted, starts bubbling, and turns golden in places.

Remove the dish, sprinkle with ground black pepper to taste, and serve immediately right in the ketsi, while the butter is still sizzling and the cheese remains stretchy.