Stuffed Mushrooms

Stuffed mushroom ready for the oven

Stuffed mushrooms are one of those dishes that really let your culinary creativity shine. The mushrooms are simply the vessel for pretty much anything you can think of -- including any number of leftovers hanging out int he fridge.

My Nana did an incredibly simple version on stuffed mushrooms; she would remove the stems and slice them lengthwise into little sticks, she would also slice cloves of garlic lengthwise into thin slices. Then I would get to carefully divide the stem and garlic slices among the mushroom caps. And that's it, that was Nana's stuffing. She would drizzle the stuffed mushrooms with olive, sprinkle salt and pepper and cover them tightly in foil and bake them until the mushrooms were cooked and the aroma of the garlic essentially steaming in the mushroom broth had everyone's mouths watering.

Outside of Nana's kitchen you'll find mushrooms stuffed with everything from crab meat to sausage to bread and cheese to spinach. If you find yourself with extra of Kimmy's Crab Cake mix for some reason, stuff some mushrooms with it! Left over broccoli, asparagus, spinach, polenta? Mushrooms make a great 'baking dish'. For this post, I did a simple spinach and cheese combination since I just needed a small batch for photos.

Since I didn't have any leftover cooked spinach, I sauteed some in minced garlic and olive oil. I used grated parmesan and Romano along with some Bella Vitano crumbles.

I never seem to make the right amount of filling, but this time, I surveyed the size of mu mushrooms, they were on the small side and I guesstimated about 2 tablespoons of filling would be plenty. When I mixed up the filling I measured the ingredients to reflect 2 T per mushroom. It actually worked pretty well. I based the recipe amounts here on a dozen mushrooms which at 2 T each would need a total of 12Oz. of filling (2T=1Oz.)

THE RECIPE:

12 mushrooms with he caps removed

1/2 C sauteed spinach

1/2 C cheeses (totally up to you as to the variety)

1/2 C bread crumbs, panko or crumbled stale bread

Maybe some broth, extra olive oil or an egg (depending on the size of the batch you're making)

Maybe some extra cheese or bread

Combine all the filling ingredients in a bowl and use your hand to mix until it's firm and can be formed into balls.

Here's where the extra ingredients come in handy to adjust the mix to the right texture to work with. When I'm making massive quantities (multiple dozens, I will use a beaten egg to hols the mix together. For this, with just a dozen shrooms and the moisture from the sauteed spinach, the filling came together just fine.

Divide the filling by the number of mushrooms you have and roll it into balls. By doing this you can adjust to make sure that you don't have leftover filling or come up short.

Firmly, but carefully (not to break the mushroom), press one ball into each mushroom

Drizzle some olive oil into a baking pan

Place the mushrooms in the pan and cover tightly with aluminum foil

Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour