Stuffed Mushrooms

Stuffed mushrooms can be served as either appetizers or as an entrée. Either way, they are easy to make and delicious.

How to Stuff a Wild Mushroom

Realistically, the best mushrooms for stuffing are button, cremini, or portobello mushrooms. These are not wild mushrooms, but cultivated mushrooms. Basic recipes for stuffed mushrooms use breadcrumbs, but who says that you can't use sausage, crab, or shrimp to stuff your mushrooms?

For appetizers, button or cremini mushrooms work best while portobello mushrooms, with their wide caps, make a fabulous entrée. Portobello mushrooms can be used as a vegetarian option to meat. You can stuff them with roasted vegetables or a vegetable/rice mixture. The texture and flavor of the portobello mushrooms may even be a hit with your non-vegetarian friends.

Preparing Mushrooms

In the past, it was believed that the only way to clean mushrooms was by carefully brushing the dirt off each individual mushroom one at a time. This was, of course, tedious, time consuming, and insane because there is no reason not to wash them in cool water.

Once the mushrooms are cleaned and dried, trim off the stems and save them. When preparing button and cremini mushrooms, they are ready to be stuffed after they've been cleaned and have had the stems trimmed off. Portobello mushrooms on the other hand need to have the gills scraped off before they can be stuffed. The best way to do this is with a teaspoon. Scrape the gills completely off the flesh of the mushroom and discard the scraped gills.

Stuffed Mushrooms

Basic stuffed mushrooms use breadcrumbs and sautéed mushroom stems as filling.

Ingredients

• 28 large cremini mushrooms
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• ½ cup of breadcrumbs
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• ¼ teaspoon dried basil
• ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• ½ cup of Romano cheese
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• 2 tablespoons Italian parsley, chopped
• 1 tablespoon of fresh mint, chopped
• Salt and pepper
• ½ cup of olive oil

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Wash the mushrooms under cool running water.
3. Trim out the stems of the mushrooms and set the caps aside.
4. Mince the stems.
5. In a large pan, melt the butter.
6. When the butter is melted, add the minced mushroom stems and a pinch of salt and pepper.
7. Sauté the mushrooms over a medium flame until they are soft, about five minutes.
8. In a large bowl, mix together the breadcrumbs, oregano, basil, thyme, and 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
9. Mix in the sautéed mushroom stems, garlic, Romano, mint, and parsley.
10. Taste for salt and pepper.
11. Pour 1 tablespoon of olive oil onto a cookie sheet.
12. Spread the oil evenly over the surface of the cookie sheet.
13. Fill each mushroom cap with a tablespoon of stuffing and place on the cookie sheet.
14. Drizzle remaining olive oil over the filled mushrooms.
15. Bake the mushrooms for 25 minutes.