When they’re being added to a soup or sauce:

1. Soak dried mushrooms in hot water until they are just soft enough to chop, knowing that they’ll continue to rehydrate when stirred into a sauce or soup.

When they need to be fully softened:

1. Add water and dried mushrooms (1 cup of water per every ½ ounce of mushrooms) to a saucepan that can hold the mushrooms snugly and keep them submerged.
2. Bring to a boil over high heat, cover, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer until the mushrooms are tender, 15 to 30 minutes.
3. Remove the mushrooms. Strain the cooking liquid through a fine-mesh strainer to remove the grit; reserve the liquid for another use. (Discard the cooking liquid from black trumpet mushrooms; it is unpleasantly bitter.)
4. Squeeze the mushrooms to eliminate any excess moisture.
5. For use as a topping, sauté them in oil until hot and season them with salt and pepper.

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