Stuffed Mushrooms

Every once in a while I get a mushroom craving, and this is one of those times. I haven’t really posted anything mushroom specific since my very first blog post about a year ago, a Mushroom Soup. I had created the recipe by combining two other soup recipes, and I remember thinking how hard all of this was, the cooking, the photos, the writing, especially the writing, I thought what in the world am I going to write about? I really just want to take pictures of food. Ah, but there’s always something to talk about when it comes to food and cooking. And I also realized I shouldn’t sweat it so much, that there is much to learn along the way, and the important thing is that I just keep going down this road I’m on. 

This recipe is from the Plenty cookbook which I’ve been digging my way through as you probably know by some of my recent posts. So far so good with the book, this Stuffed Mushroom recipe was just delicious. A really nice combination of fresh herbs, sun-dried tomatoes and cheese. Keep in mind the stuffing mixture came out to be a lot, volume-wise. So although the recipe calls for 4 large portobello mushrooms you will be able to fill a lot more than that unless your mushrooms are frisbee size. Mine were not, in addition I stuffed 4 white mushrooms and still had stuffing left over. 

Also the book recommends using Taleggio cheese, I couldn't find any so I used Fontina and it tasted great!

Stuffed Mushrooms

(adapted from Plenty)

• 4 large portobello mushrooms (or similar), stalks removed*
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• 1 small onion, finely diced
• 1 celery stalk, finely diced
• 2 cups finely chopped sun-dried tomatoes
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon leaves
• 4 tablespoons coarsely shredded basil leaves
• 3 1/2 ounces Taleggio cheese sliced (or similar, I used Fontina)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the mushrooms stalk-side up on the sheet and drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper. Roast for about 15 minutes or until the mushrooms begin to soften.

Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a sauté pan, add the onions and celery and cook on low heat for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the sun-dried tomatoes and garlic and cook for a few more minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Once cool add the parmesan, tarragon and half the basil to the mixture, season with salt and pepper. Pile the filling on the whole mushrooms and top with the cheese slices, return to oven and bake for about 10 minutes or until the cheese melts and mushrooms are tender.

Transfer the mushrooms to serving plates and drizzle with olive oil. Garnish with remaining basil and serve right away.

Serves 4 as starter.

*I found the filling to be too much for the 4 portobello mushrooms I had, I added 4 white mushrooms to this recipe and still had at least 1/2 cup of the mixture left over.